hat
terrible fusillade of sun-rays. She did not dream of the actual heroism
which actuated him when he set out with little Dan'l, holding his big
umbrella over her little sunbonneted head and waving in his other hand a
palm-leaf fan.

Little Dan'l danced with glee as she went out of the yard. The small,
anemic creature did not feel the heat except as a stimulant. Daniel had
to keep charging her to walk slowly. "Don't go so fast, little Dan'l,
or you'll get overhet, and then what will Mis' Dean say?" he continually
repeated.

Little Dan'l's thin, pretty face peeped up at him from between the sides
of her green sunbonnet. She pointed one dainty finger at a cloud of pale
yellow butterflies in the field beside which they were walking. "Want to
chase flutterbies," she chirped. Little Dan'l had a fascinating way of
misplacing her consonants in long words.

"No; you'll get overhet. You just walk along slow with Uncle Dan'l, and
pretty soon we'll come to the pretty brook," said Daniel.

"Where the lagon-dries live?" asked little Dan'l, meaning dragon-flies.

"Yes," said Daniel. He was conscious, as he spoke, of increasing waves
of thready black floating before his eyes. They had floated since dawn,
but now they were increasing. Some of the time he could hardly see the
narrow sidewalk path between the dusty meadowsweet and hardhack bushes,
since those floating black threads wove together into a veritable veil
before him. At such times he walked unsteadily, and little Dan'l eyed
him curiously.

"Why don't you walk the way you always do?" she queried.

"Uncle Dan'l can't see jest straight, somehow," replied the old man;
"guess it's because it's rather warm."

It was in truth a day of terror because of the heat. It was one of
those days which break records, which live in men's memories as great
catastrophes, which furnish head-lines for newspapers, and are alluded
to with shudders at past sufferings. It was one of those days which seem
to forecast the Dreadful Day of Revelation wherein no shelter may be
found from the judgment of the fiery firmament. On that day men fell in
their tracks and died, or were rushed to hospitals to be succored as by
a miracle. And on that day the poor old man who had all his life feared
and dreaded the heat as the most loathly happening of earth, walked
afield for love of the little child. As Daniel went on the heat seemed
to become palpable--something which could actually be seen. There was
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