had received; but he could not understand a
kick and harsh words for him, so he lay quivering with anxiety and fear.

"You howling, whimpering idiot!" exclaimed the Harvester. "Choose a
day like this to spoil! Air to intoxicate a mummy! Roots swelling! Buds
bursting! Harvest close and you'd call me off and put me at work like
that, would you? If I ever had supposed lost all your senses, I never
would have asked you. Six years you have decided my fate, when the first
bluebird came, and you've been true blue every time. If I ever trust you
again! But the mischief is done now.

"Have you forgotten that your name means 'to protect?' Don't you
remember it is because of that, it is your name? Protect! I'd have
trusted you with my life, Bell! You gave it to me the time you pointed
that rattler within six inches of my fingers in the blood-root bed.
You saw the falling limb in time to warn me. You always know where the
quicksands lie. But you are protecting me now, like sin, ain't you?
Bring a girl here to spoil both our lives! Not if I know myself!
Protect!"

The man arose and going inside the cabin closed the door. After that the
dog lay in abject misery so deep that two big tears squeezed from his
eyes and rolled down his face. To be shut out was worse than the blow.
He did not take the trouble to arise from the wet leaves covering the
cold earth, but closing his eyes went to sleep.

The man leaned against the door and ran his fingers through his hair as
he anathematized the dog. Slowly his eyes travelled around the room. He
saw his tumbled bed by the open window facing the lake, the small
table with his writing material, the crude rack on the wall loaded
with medical works, botanies, drug encyclopaedias, the books of the few
authors who interested him, and the bare, muck-tracked floor. He went
to the kitchen, where he built a fire in the cook stove, and to the
smoke-house, from which he returned with a slice of ham and some eggs.
He set some potatoes boiling and took bread, butter and milk from the
pantry. Then he laid a small note-book on the table before him and
studied the transactions of the day.

10 lbs. wild cherry bark 6 cents $.60
5 " wahoo root bark 25 " 1.25
20 " witch hazel bark 5 " 1.00
5 " blue flag root 12 " .60
10 " snake root 18 " 1.80
10 " blood root 12 " 1.20