was as easy to lift as a child. The only thing that the old woman would
consent to do, was to go with a pencil note to Mr Grey, and bring back
the clean dry straw which would be given her in his yard. She went, in
hopes of receiving something else with the straw; and while she was
gone, Margaret was quite alone with the sick family.

Struggling to surmount her disgust at the task, she resolved to employ
the interval in removing the shavings. The pail containing the charmed
water was the only thing in the cottage which would hold them; and she
made bold to empty it in the ditch close at hand. Platt was capable of
watching all she did; and he made a frightful gesture of rage at her as
she re-entered. She saw in the shadow of the handkerchief his quivering
lips move in the act of speaking, and her ear caught the words of an
oath. Her situation now was far from pleasant; but it was still a
relief that no one was by to witness what she saw and was doing. She
conveyed pailful after pailful of the noisome shavings to the dunghill
at the back of the cottage, wondering the while that the inhabitants of
the dwelling were not all dead of the fever long ago. She almost gave
over her task when a huge toad crawled upon her foot from its
resting-place among the shavings. She shrunk from it, and was glad to
see it make for the door of its own accord. Platt again growled, and
clenched his fist at her. He probably thought that she had again broken
a charm for which he had paid money. She spoke kindly and cheerfully,
again and again; but he was either deaf or too ill to understand. To
relieve the sense of dreariness, she went to work again. She thoroughly
cleansed the pail, and filled it afresh from the brook, looking
anxiously down the lane for the approach of some human creature, and
then applied herself to rubbing the bedstead as dry and clean as she
could, with an apron of the old woman's.

In due time her messenger returned; and with her Ben, carrying a truss
of straw. His face was the face of a friend.

"We must have some warm water, Ben, to clean these poor creatures; and
there seems to be nothing to make a fire with."

"And it would take a long time, Miss, to get the coals, and heat the
water; and the poor soul lying there all the time. Could not I bring
you a pail of hot water from the `Bonnet-so-Blue' quicker than that?"

"Do; and soap and towels from home."

Ben was gone with the pail. During the whole t