fo' you."

"Well, light, ye fool, and put yo' beast under the shack."

The Doctor slammed the door and shivered back into the range of the
fire's glow.

"Come in," he shouted, when he heard Bud's stamping feet on the porch.
"Come in and warm. Who's sick, Melissa or the baby?"

Bud unwound the scarf that protected his ears, shook the water from his
jacket, and began to untie the strings that secured pieces of sacking
to his feet.

"Ne'er one. M'lissy's tol'able, 'n the baby's right smart. Doctor, Ah
don' know's Ah ever knew a baby 's was 's lively 's Sydney M'lissy."

"Common failing o' first babies," grunted the Doctor.

"Now mos' babies," pursued Bud, spreading out his scarf and the pieces
of burlap to dry before the blaze,--"mos' babies ain' overly
interestin', but Ah 'low Ah never saw a baby suck her thumb no
prettier'n Sydney M'lissy!"

"Did you-all say something about a letter?"

The Doctor was torn between a desire to be hospitable and a yearning to
return to Sam Weller.

"Yes, Ah got a letter fo' ye."

Bud began to hunt in the inner recesses of his apparel.

"'N Ah 'low he cain't be well."

"He? Who?"

The Doctor's hopes of picking up his book again, which had risen when
he heard of the admirable physical state of Melissa and the baby, sank
once more.

"Mr. Baron. He sho' mus' be crazy to go out in such weather's this, 'n
what's mo', to expect me to."

"He seemed to know the right person to apply to."

"That's the trouble with me. Ah'm that lackin' in good sense Ah do
anythin' anybody asts me to 'cos Ah'm flattered to be ast!"

"Does he say he's sick?"

"He don' say so, but he looks powerful res'-less 'n wild-like. He came
over 'bout noon 'n ast me would Ah carry you this letter."

Here Bud's prolonged search resulted in the discovery of the letter's
outline under his sweater, and he extracted it by way of the neck of
that elastic garment.

"Ah said, no, Ah wa'n' no fool to go out in such weather, 'n then he
cut loose 'n talked the most awful language. Ah couldn' understan' a
word of hit; Ah reckon hit's his foreign words or somethin', but Ah
never heard anythin' like hit befo'. 'N then he ast me again, mahty
quiet like, wouldn' Ah take this letter to you-all fo' him, 'n Ah jus'
natchelly thought Ah would!"

The boy grinned sheepishly. The Doctor nodded and ran his finger under
the flap of the envelope.

"So you think he's sick."

"M'lissy does. When Ah was puttin' the saddle on