e! Don't you allow Joseph to say a single word to-night. He must
be kept perfectly quiet, or no one can say what may be the result of his
terrible wounds. Go to sleep immediately, both of you, and to-morrow
morning I'll do the talking, if Joseph isn't strong enough."

"Go on, an' tell me all about it," Plums whispered. "She won't hear if
we talk low."

"I'll do jest exactly as aunt Dorcas told me, even if she said I was to
stand on my head for half an hour. A feller who wouldn't mind what she
tells him ain't fit to live," and Joe got into bed, refusing to so much
as speak when Plums plied him with questions.

Although he had made light of his wounds when talking to aunt Dorcas,
they gave him no slight amount of pain, and this, together with his
anxiety of mind, would seem to have been sufficient to keep his eyes
open until morning; yet within a very short time he was sleeping as
peacefully as if attorneys and burglars had never been known in this
world.

Not until aunt Dorcas tapped gently on the door next morning did either
of the boys awaken, and then Joe would have leaped out of bed
immediately after answering her summons, but for the words:

"You're not to get up, Joseph, until I am positive you are out of
danger."

Joe laughed aloud, in the gladness of his heart; such solicitude for his
welfare was something he had never known before, and it seemed very
sweet to him.

"Let me get up, aunt Dorcas, an' if I don't show you I'm all right, I'll
come straight back to bed. There's no need of my layin' here, 'cause I'm
sound as a nut."

The little woman hesitated, but finally gave the desired permission, and
when Joe was in the kitchen once more, she insisted on removing the
bandages to examine the wounds before even so much as allowing Master
Plummer to partake of the breakfast already prepared.

To Joe and Plums, who were accustomed to such injuries, there appeared
to be no reason why the bandages should be replaced, but aunt Dorcas,
who could be as firm as she usually was gentle, when occasion required,
insisted upon obedience, and once more Joe's face was enveloped in white
cloth, until he presented a most comical appearance.

Then aunt Dorcas brought the princess down-stairs, and the little maid,
not recognising her young guardian, positively refused to speak to him,
but nestled close by the little woman's side until Joe, by dint of much
coaxing and bribing, persuaded her to accept him as a new, if not an