s coming, look out
and see which way the mischief is brewin', and make your preparations.
That's the great study of physic."

The boy listened patiently and even attentively to this speech, and when
Billy had concluded, he turned to the Corporal and said, "Look to him,
Craggs, and let him have his supper, and when he has eaten it send him
to my room."

Billy bowed an acknowledgment, and followed the Corporal to the kitchen.

"That's my lord's son, I suppose," said he, as he seated himself, "and
a fine young crayture too--_puer ingenuus_, with a grand frontal
development." And with this reflection he addressed himself to the
coarse but abundant fare which Craggs placed before him, and with an
appetite that showed how much he relished it.

"This is elegant living ye have here, Mr. Craggs," said Billy, as he
drained his tankard of beer, and placed it with a sigh on the table;
"many happy years of it to ye--I could n't wish ye anything better."

"The life is not so bad," said Craggs, "but it's lonely sometimes."

"Life need never be lonely so long as a man has health and his
faculties," said Billy; "give me nature to admire, a bit of baycon for
dinner, and my fiddle to amuse me, and I would n't change with the King
of Sugar 'Candy.'"

"I was there," said Craggs, "it's a fine island."

"My lord wants to see the doctor," said a woman, entering hastily.

"And the doctor is ready for him," said Billy, rising and leaving the
kitchen with all the dignity he could assume.

CHAPTER III. BILLY TRAYNOR--POET, PEDLAR, AND PHYSICIAN

"Didn't I tell you how it would be?" said Billy, as he re-entered the
kitchen, now crowded by the workpeople, anxious for tidings of the sick
man. "The head is re-leaved, the congestive symptoms is allayed, and
when the artarial excitement subsides, he 'll be out of danger."

"Musha, but I 'm glad," muttered one; "he 'd be a great loss to us."

"True for you, Patsey; there's eight or nine of us here would miss him
if he was gone."

"Troth, he doesn't give much employment, but we couldn't spare him,"
croaked out a third, when the entrance of the Corporal cut short further
commentary; and the party gathered around the cheerful turf fire with
that instinctive sense of comfort impressed by the swooping wind and
rain that beat against the windows.

"It's a dreadful night outside; I would n't like to cross the lough in
it," said one.

"Then that's just what I'm thinking of this minit," sai