The rest of the men could look for a neighbour to finish the grain with
another machine, but for him, he spent the time at Hugh's side.

"How is he?" Doctor Morgan asked almost before he was within speaking
distance.

"Resting. We don't trouble him, but he seems quiet."

"That's good!" the old man exclaimed. He had come with his heart in his
mouth, as they say in that country. "I wish I had as good a report for
you," he added.

"Why--what's happened to me?" John asked in surprise.

"The young mare you drove in died in the stable. It's hot weather, and I
guess you were pretty badly excited. I told the men in the livery to shut
the colt up; it kept nosing around the carcass and it isn't good for it.
You'd better get in as early as you can and look after it yourself. Those
stable men don't care for anything that ain't their own."

John Hunter stood speechless till the end of the story, and then helped
tie the doctor's team.

"That all comes from that miserable team! I'm glad one of them did have to
be shot. I've half a notion to shoot the other one; it's all cut up by the
wire and 'll take no end of trouble to cure. Hugh said horses and dogs
talked with their tails, and I guess they do. Say, will you tell Elizabeth
about the horse? It's one I got from her father and she's terribly fond of
it."

Elizabeth met Doctor Morgan as he came from Hugh's room a few minutes
later with the unspoken question so plainly evident in her face that he
answered it without waiting to be asked.

"No signs of further trouble, little woman, thank God! They tell me you
were near being run over by that binder too."

Elizabeth evaded the last remark.

"That's nothing. But are you sure about Hugh?" she asked in a voice that
quavered a little.

"Now look here," the doctor said, concerned at once for her welfare. "We
can't have you go and get upset. It looks as if Noland got out of that
pretty lucky. The only thing that's worrying me is that infernal heart of
his."

John came in at that point and the old doctor addressed himself to him.

"This woman'll have to take care of Noland, Hunter, and I want you to see
to it that she don't have another thing to do. She can't have that child
dragging on her, and we'll have to look out that she don't overdo, or
we'll have her down on our hands too. The trouble with peritonitis is that
it don't get well as fast as it looks to. A slight thing will often start
it up anew, and peritonitis is the de