g no
desire to bark or bite. The kitchen was empty, and--she thanked the
Lord silently, as she gave a hasty glance about--not as dreadful as
she had anticipated. Untidy beyond words, bare, dreary, cheerless, but
not repulsively dirty. She stole softly through the lower part of the
house, and then with a beating heart went up the uncarpeted stairs. At
the head was an open door that showed her all she expected and feared
to find. The sun streamed in at the dusty, uncurtained window over the
motionless body of Caleb Kimball, who lay in a strange, deep sleep,
unconscious, on the bed. His hair was raven black against the pillow
and the lashes on his cheeks looked more 'n a yard long, Amanda told
Susan Benson. (She afterward confessed that this was a slight
exaggeration due to extreme excitement.) She spoke his name three
times, but he did not stir. She must get the doctor and send for
William Benson, that was clear; but first she must try her hand at
improving the immediate situation.

Stealing downstairs she tied on her apron and lighted a fire in the
kitchen stove, with the view of making things respectable before
gossipy neighbors came in. Her sister used to say that the minute
Amanda tied on her apron things began to move and take a turn for the
better, and it was so now. She poured a few drops of cologne into a
basin of water, and putting the towel over her arm went upstairs to
Caleb's bedside.

"I've done him wrong," she thought remorsefully as she noted his
decent night-clothing and bedding. "He ain't lost his self-respect in
all these years, and every soul in Bonny Eagle thought he was living
like an animal!"

She bathed his face and throat and hands, then moistened and smoothed
his hair without provoking a movement or a sound. He seemed in a
profound stupor, but there was no stertorous breathing. Straightening
the bedclothes and giving a hasty wipe to the tops of the pine bureau
and table, she opened the window and closed the blinds. At this moment
she spied one of the Thatcher boys going along the road, and ran down
to the gate to ask him to send William Benson and the doctor as soon
as possible.

"Tell them Miss Dalton says please to come quick; Caleb Kimball's very
sick," she said.

"Don't you need mother, too?" asked the boy. "She's wanted to git into
his house for years, and she'd do most anything for the chance."

"No, thank you," said Amanda pitilessly. "I can do everything for the
present, and Mr. B