might be,
and hastened back to the outhouse. At the door a cat was miawling,
and rubbed itself against his shins. When he entered the cat
followed him.

The child was still sobbing and fitfully screaming, but was rapidly
becoming exhausted.

Iver felt the arms and head and body to ascertain whether any bone
was broken or battered by the fall, but his acquaintance with the
anatomy of a child was still rudimentary for him to come to any
satisfactory conclusion.

He held the bottle in one and, but was ignorant how to administer
the contents. Should the child be laid on its back or placed in a
sitting posture?

When he applied the moistened rag to its mouth he speedily
learned that position was immaterial. The babe fell to work
vigorously, with the large expectation of results. Some moments
elapsed before it awoke to the fact that the actual results were
hardly commensurate with its anticipations, nor with its exertions.

When roused to full consciousness that it was being trifled with,
then the resentment of the infant was vehement and vociferous.
It drew up its legs and kicked out. It battled with its hands, it
butted with its pate, and in its struggles pulled the plug out
of the mouth of the flask so that the milk gushed over its face
and into its mouth, at once blinding and choking it.

"Oh, dear, oh, dear, what shall I do?" he exclaimed, and began to
cry with vexation.

The cat now came to his assistance. It began to lick up the spilled
milk.

Iver seized the occasion.

"Look, see, pretty puss!" said he, caressingly, to the child.
"Stroke pussy. Don't be afraid. You see she likes the milk that you
wouldn't have. Naughty pussy eats little birds and mousies. But she
won't touch babies."

The cat having appropriated the spilled milk looked at the infant
with an uncanny way out of her glinting green eyes, as though by no
means indisposed to try whether baby was not as good eating as a
fledgling bird, as toothsome as a mouse.

Iver caught up the cat and scratched her under the chin and behind
the ears.

"Do you hear? The pussy purrs. Would that you also might purr. She
is pleased to make your acquaintance. Oh do, do, do be quiet!"

Then casting aside the cat he endeavored slowly to distil some of
the milk down the child's throat without suffering it to swallow
too much at once, but found the task difficult, if not impossible
for his hand shook.

"Wait a bit," said he. "There are straws here. I will cut