sun rose the new life was ushered in. Doctor Morgan did not start
home till after nine o'clock.

"Who is to have charge of your wife, Mr. Hunter?" he asked as he paused in
the door and looked back at his patient anxiously. Seven miles was a long
distance--and she might need him suddenly.

"Why, I thought Hepsie and I could care for her," John replied. Trained
nurses were unheard of in those days.

"It simply cannot be," answered the old man. (Doctor Stubbins had not been
engaged.) "Another attack like this last one would--well, you _must_ have
some one of experience here. It's a matter of life or death--at least it
might be," he added under his breath. "Couldn't you stay?" he asked Susan
Hornby, who sat with the baby on her knee. "The girl's liable to slip away
from us before I could get here."

It was arranged that Aunt Susan should stay with the young mother, who was
too weak to turn her head on the pillow it lay upon, for as the old doctor
had said she was a desperately sick girl. They had but just kept her with
them. The presence of Aunt Susan was almost as delightful to Elizabeth
Hunter as the head of the child on her arm. Weak and exhausted, she was
permitted such rest as she had not known in all the days of her married
life. The darkened room and the quiet of the next three days were such a
mercy to her tired nerves that she would have been glad to lie there for
ages. Doctor Morgan let Susan Hornby return to her home and husband at the
end of the week, confident that with care, Hepsie could perform the little
offices required, but he was to learn that country people have little
judgment in serious cases of illness, and that the young mother's room
would be filled with company when he came out the next day.

Mr. and Mrs. Crane were the first to arrive on Sunday morning, and when
John announced that they were driving up to the hitching post, Elizabeth
begged weakly for him to say that she was too ill to see any one that day.
John would have been glad to deliver that message, remembering the wedding
day, but Sadie was with her mother, and John had found Luther a convenient
neighbour of late.

"We can't offend them," he said.

"But I can't have them. Please, John--with my head aching already."

"Don't speak so loud," John said warningly.

Mrs. Farnshaw came and had to have her team tied to the barnyard fence.
She walked to the house with the rest of the company, and even in their
presence could not restrain