ow a thin, gaseous horror over the blazing sky, which did not temper
the heat, but increased it, giving it the added torment of steam. The
clogging moisture seemed to brood over the accursed earth, like some
foul bird with deadly menace in wings and beak.

Daniel walked more and more unsteadily. Once he might have fallen had
not the child thrown one little arm around a bending knee. "You 'most
tumbled down. Uncle Dan'l," said she. Her little voice had a surprised
and frightened note in it.

"Don't you be scared," gasped Daniel; "we have got 'most to the brook;
then we'll be all right. Don't you be scared, and--you walk real slow
and not get overhet."

The brook was near, and it was time. Daniel staggered under the trees
beside which the little stream trickled over its bed of stones. It was
not much of a brook at best, and the drought had caused it to lose
much of its life. However, it was still there, and there were delicious
little hollows of coolness between the stones over which it flowed, and
large trees stood about with their feet rooted in the blessed damp. Then
Daniel sank down. He tried to reach a hand to the water, but could not.
The black veil had woven a compact mass before his eyes. There was a
terrible throbbing in his head, but his arms were numb.

Little Dan'l stood looking at him, and her lip quivered. With a mighty
effort Daniel cleared away the veil and saw the piteous baby face.
"Take--Uncle Dan'l's hat and--fetch him--some water," he gasped. "Don't
go too--close and--tumble in."

The child obeyed. Daniel tried to take the dripping hat, but failed.
Little Dan'l was wise enough to pour the water over the old man's head,
but she commenced to weep, the pitiful, despairing wail of a child who
sees failing that upon which she has leaned for support.

Daniel rallied again. The water on his head gave him momentary relief,
but more than anything else his love for the child nerved him to effort.

"Listen, little Dan'l," he said, and his voice sounded in his own
ears like a small voice of a soul thousands of miles away. "You take
the--umbrella, and--you take the fan, and you go real slow, so you don't
get overhet, and you tell Mis' Dean, and--"

Then old Daniel's tremendous nerve, that he had summoned for the sake of
love, failed him, and he sank back. He was quite unconscious--his face,
staring blindly up at the terrible sky between the trees, was to little
Dan'l like the face of a stranger. She gave o