or who had come so gallantly to the aid of the
sufferers on Cloud Island opened his eyes upon his first day there.

He heard some slight sounds, and looked over the edge of his bed to see
a little table set forth in the broad passage between the two stores of
hay. A slip of a girl, of about fourteen years of age, was arranging
dishes upon it. When Caius scrambled down, she informed him, with
childish timidity of mien, that Madame Le Maitre had said that he was to
have his breakfast there before he went in to see "father." The child
spoke French, but Caius spoke English because it relieved his mind to do
so.

"Upon my word!" he said, "Madame Le Maitre keeps everything running in
very good order, and takes prodigious care of us all."

"Oh, oui, monsieur," replied the child sagely, judging from his look of
amusement and the name he had repeated that this was the proper answer.

The breakfast, which was already there, consisted of fish, delicately
baked, and coffee. The young doctor felt exceedingly odd, sitting in the
cart-track of a barn and devouring these viands from a breakfast-table
that was tolerably well set out with the usual number of dishes and
condiments. The big double door was closed to keep out the cold wind,
but plenty of air and numerous sunbeams managed to come in. The sunbeams
were golden bars of dust, crossing and interlacing in the twilight of
the windowless walls. The slip of a girl in her short frock remained,
perhaps from curiosity, perhaps because she had been bidden to do so,
but she made herself as little obvious as possible, standing up against
one corner near the door and shyly twisting some bits of hay in her
hands. Caius, who was enjoying himself, discovered a new source of
amusement in pretending to forget her presence and then looking at her
quickly, for he always found the glance of her big gray eyes was being
withdrawn from his own face, and child-like confusion ensued.

When he had eaten enough, he set to his proper work with haste and
diligence. He made the girl tell him how many children there were, and
find them all for him, so that in a trice he had them standing in a row
in the sunlight outside the barn, with their little tongues all out,
that the state of their health might be properly inspected. Then he went
in to his patient of the night before.

The disease was diphtheria. It was a severe case; but the man had been
healthy, and Caius approved the arrangements that Madame Le