b them with all manner of ill-smelling
and ill-behaving drugs. In truth, he hated to give anything noxious or
loathsome to those who were uncomfortable enough already, unless he was
very sure it would do good,--in which case, he never played with drugs,
but gave good, honest, efficient doses. Sometimes he lost a family of
the more boorish sort, because they did not think they got their
money's worth out of him, unless they had something more than a taste of
everything he carried in his saddlebags.

He ordered some remedies which he thought would relieve Elsie, and left
her, saying he would call the next day, hoping to find her better.
But the next day came, and the next, and still Elsie was on her bed,
feverish, restless, wakeful, silent. At night she tossed about and
wandered, and it became at length apparent that there was a settled
attack, something like what they called, formerly, a "nervous fever."

On the fourth day she was more restless than common. One of the women
of the house came in to help to take care of her; but she showed an
aversion to her presence.

"Send me Helen Darley," she said, at last.

The old Doctor told them, that, if possible, they must indulge this
fancy of hers. The caprices of sick people were never to be despised,
least of all of such persons as Elsie, when rendered irritable and
exacting by pain and weakness.

So a message was sent to Mr. Silas Peckham at the Apollinean Institute,
to know if he could not spare Miss Helen Darley for a few days, if
required, to give her attention to a young lady who attended his school
and who was now lying ill,--no other person than the daughter of Dudley
Venner.

A mean man never agrees to anything without deliberately turning it
over, so that he may see its dirty side, and, if he can, sweating the
coin he pays for it. If an archangel should offer to save his soul for
sixpence, he would try to find a sixpence with a hole in it. A gentleman
says yes to a great many things without stopping to think: a shabby
fellow is known by his caution in answering questions, for fear of,
compromising his pocket or himself.

Mr. Silas Peckham looked very grave at the request. The dooties of Miss
Darley at the Institoot were important, very important. He paid her
large sums of money for her time,--more than she could expect to get in
any other institootion for the edoocation of female youth. A deduction
from her selary would be necessary, in case she should retire