nd agony upon his face.

"Here, lad," he exclaimed, "come in,--come in an' see what trouble is!
Ye don' know. How ken ye?"

Noll followed, and Dirk pushed open the door of his dwelling. The air
which met the boy as he entered the small, low room was so close and
foul that he almost staggered back. The floor was bare, and through a
crack under the door the keen wind swept in across it, flaring the
fire on the stone hearth and puffing ashes and smoke about. A fishy
odor was upon everything. Household utensils were scattered about in
front of the hearth, occupying a quarter of the room, and what few
chairs and other articles of wooden furniture there were, were fairly
black with dirt and smoke. Noll had never before entered a dwelling so
filthy, wretched, and miserable as this.

"Here, lad," said Dirk, brokenly,--"here--be--the--little gal," and
pointed to one corner, where, watched over by a thin, slovenly woman,
the child lay on its little bed.

The mother did not take her eyes off the girl, and Noll went forward,
with much inward repugnance, to look upon Dirk's treasure. The child's
cheeks were flushed a bright red, and it lay with drowsy, heavy-lidded
eyes, uttering, at intervals, a low wail.

Noll shivered, and involuntarily thought of those dreary, desolate
graves which he stumbled upon in one of his rambles. Could nothing be
done? Must the child die for lack of a little medicine? He looked
through the little dirt-crusted window upon the tossing sea, and saw
what a hopeless barrier it interposed between them and aid. He thought
of Uncle Richard, and knew that it was useless to expect aid from that
direction; and then he thought of _Hagar_! She was a good nurse, he
remembered, and knew--or claimed to know--a vast deal about medicine.
Perhaps she could help this child! he thought, with a glad heart, and
if she could! His heart suddenly sank, for he remembered that the old
housekeeper could not make a journey through the storm and tempest,
even had she the necessary skill.

"But," he thought to himself, "I can tell her about the child,--it's
got a fever,--and she can send medicines; and to-morrow, if it's
pleasant, she can come herself!" and thinking thus, Noll turned to
Dirk, with--

"I can get you some medicines, I think, from our old housekeeper. May
I? Shall I try?"

The fisherman was silent with surprise. He would probably have sooner
expected aid from across the raging sea than from this