xclaimed, trying to draw the
comforters more closely about him.

Mercy went up to him, and, sitting down by his side, began to talk to him
in a perfectly natural tone, as if she were making an ordinary call on an
invalid in his own home. She said nothing to suggest that he had done any
thing unnatural in hiding himself, and spoke of his severe cold as being
merely what every one else had been suffering from for some time. Then she
told him how ill her mother was, and succeeded in really arousing his
interest in that. Finally, she said,--

"But I must go now. I can't be away from my mother long. I will come and
see you again to-morrow. Shall I find you here or at your home?"

"Well, I was thinking I 'd better move home to-day," said he.

His wife and son involuntarily exchanged glances. This was more than they
had dared to hope.

"Yes, I would, if I were you," replied Mercy, still in a perfectly natural
tone. "It would be so much better for you to be in a room with a fire in
it for a few days. There isn't any way of warming this room, is there?"
said she, looking all about, as if to see if it might not be possible
still to put up a stove there. "'Siah" turned his head away to hide a
smile, so amused was he by the tact of the remark. "No, I see there is no
stovepipe-hole here," she went on, "so you'd much better move home. I'm
going by the stable. Let me send Seth right up with the carriage, won't
you?"

"No, no! Bless my soul! Thinks I'm made of money, don't she! No, no! I can
walk." And the old half-crazy glare came into his eyes.

Mercy went nearer to him, and laid her hand gently on his.

"Mr. Wheeler," said she, "you did something very kind for me once: now
won't you do something once more,--just once? I want you to go home in the
carriage. It is a terribly cold day, and the streets are very icy. I
nearly fell several times myself coming over here. You will certainly
take a terrible cold, if you walk this morning. Please say I may get the
carriage."

"Bless my soul! Bless my soul, child! Go get it then, if you care so much;
but tell him I'll only pay a quarter,--only a quarter, remember. They'd
take every cent I've got. They are all wolves, wolves, wolves!"

"Yes, I'll tell him only a quarter. I'll have him here in a few minutes!"
exclaimed Mercy, and ran out of the room hastily before the old man could
change his mind.

As good luck would have it, Seth and his "kerridge" were in sight when
Mercy reached