o be renewed, and felt with even a keener
concern.

In the evening he called in, but there was no perceptible change,
except a slight aggravation of all the symptoms. The medicine had
produced no visible salutary effect. During the second day, there
was exhibited little alteration, but on the morning of the third
day, symptoms of a more decided character had supervened--such as
suffused and injected eyes, painful deglutition, an oppression in
the chest, accompanied with a short, dry cough, pains in the back,
loins, and extremities; and a soreness throughout the whole body.
These had not escaped the father's observation, and with the most
painful anxiety did he watch the countenance of the physician while
he examined the case in its new presentation. Much as he tried to
control the expression of his face, he found it impossible. He felt
too deeply concerned, and was too conscious of the frequent
impotence of medicine, when administered with the most experienced
skill.

In the afternoon he called again, and found the father, as usual, by
the bedside. His patient seemed to be in a narcotic sleep, and when
roused from it, complained of much giddiness, and soon sunk down
again into a state of torpor.

"What do you think of her now, doctor?" asked the father, in a
hoarse whisper, on the physician's leaving the chamber of his
patient.

"It is impossible to form any correct idea respecting a case like
this. I have seen many much worse recover, and have no doubt, as far
as human calculation will go, that your daughter will get well. But
the fever is a tedious one, usually defying all attempts at breaking
it. It must run its course, which is usually some ten or fifteen
days. All we can do is to palliate, and then assist nature, when the
disease has abated its violence."

It is not necessary to trace the progress of the disease from day to
day, until it reached its climax. When the fever did break, and a
soft, gentle moisture penetrated the skin, the patient had but a
spark of life remaining.

At the close of the fifteenth day, when every symptom indicated that
convalescence or death would soon ensue, no one but a physician can
imagine the painful, restless anxiety, which was felt by Dr. Elton.
He took but little food, and slept hardly any during the whole
night, frequently starting from his brief periods of troubled
slumber, in consequence of great nervous excitement.

Early in the morning he called at the room of his