m; but the impatient William of
Yuba had characteristically helped himself and gone off to the stable.
Then Jeff stole into the hall and halted before the closed door of the
sitting-room. A bold idea of going in again, as became a landlord of the
"Half-way House," with an inquiry if they wished anything further, had
seized him, but the remembrance that he had always meekly allowed that
duty to devolve upon his aunt, and that she would probably resent it
with scriptural authority and bring him to shame again, stayed his
timid knuckles at the door. In this hesitation he stumbled upon his aunt
coming down the stairs with an armful of blankets and pillows, attended
by their small Indian servant, staggering under a mattress.

"Is everything all right, aunty?"

"Ye kin be thankful to the Lord, Jeff Briggs, that this didn't happen
last week when I was down on my back with rheumatiz. But ye're never
grateful."

"The young lady--is SHE comfortable?" said Jeff, accepting his aunt's
previous remark as confirmatory.

"Ez well ez enny critter marked by the finger of the Lord with gallopin'
consumption kin be, I reckon. And she, ez oughter be putting off airthly
vanities, askin' for a lookin'-glass! And you! trapesin' through the
hall with her on yer shoulder, and dancin' and jouncin' her up and down
ez if it was a ball-room!" A guilty recollection that he had skipped
with her through the passage struck him with remorse as his aunt went
on: "It's a mercy that betwixt you and the wet bar-skin she ain't got
her deth!"

"Don't ye think, aunty," stammered Jeff, "that--that--my bein' the
landlord, yer know, it would be the square thing--just out o' respect,
ye know--for me to drop in thar and ask 'em if thar's anythin' they
wanted?"

His aunt stopped, and resignedly put down the pillows. "Sarah," she
said meekly to the handmaiden, "ye kin leave go that mattress. Yer's Mr.
Jefferson thinks we ain't good enough to make the beds for them two city
women folks, and he allows he'll do it himself!"

"No, no! aunty!" began the horrified Jeff; but failing to placate his
injured relative, took safety in flight.

Once safe in his own room his eye fell on the bear-skin. It certainly
WAS wet. Perhaps he had been careless--perhaps he had imperiled her
life! His cheeks flushed as he threw it hastily in the corner. Something
fell from it to the floor. Jeff picked it up and held it to the light.
It was a small, a very small, lady's slipper. Hold