me bustling out
of the parlor door.

"Sakes on me!" she cried, as she beheld the burden in her visitor's
arms. "If it ain't Miss Rest all dead an' done!" Her red hands went up
in the air with such a comical tragedy, and her big eyes performed
such a wide revolution in their fat, sunburnt setting that Buck
half-feared an utter collapse. So he hurriedly sought to reassure
her, and offered a smiling encouragement.

"I allow she's mostly done, but I guess she's not dead," he said
quickly.

The old woman heaved a tragic sigh.

"My! but you made me turn right over, as the sayin' is. You should
ha' bin more careful, an' me with my heart too, an' all. The doctor
told me as I was never to have no shock to speak of. They might set
up hem--hemoritch or suthin' o' the heart, what might bring on
sing--sing--I know it was suthin' to do with singin', which means I'd
never live to see another storm like we just had, not if it sure come
on this minit----"

"I'm real sorry, ma'm," said Buck, smiling quietly at the old woman's
volubility, but deliberately cutting it short. "I mean about the shock
racket. Y' see she needs fixin' right, an' I guess it's up to you to
git busy, while I go an' haul her trunks up from the creek."

Again the woman's eyes opened and rolled.

"What they doin' in the creek?" she demanded with sudden heat. "Who
put 'em ther'? Some scallawag, I'll gamble. An' you standin' by seein'
it done, as you might say. I never did see sech a place, nor sech
folk. To think o' that pore gal a-settin' watchin' her trunks bein'
pushed into the creek by a lot o' loafin' bums o' miners, an' no one
honest enough, nor man enough to raise a hand to--to----"

"With respec', ma'm, you're talkin' a heap o' foolishness," cried Buck
impatiently, his anxiety for the girl overcoming his deference for the
other's sex. "If you'll show me the lady's room I'll carry her right
into it an' set her on her bed, an'----"

"Mercy alive, what's the world a-comin' to!" cried the indignant
farm-wife. "Me let the likes o' you into the gal's bedroom! You? Guess
you need seein' to by the State, as the sayin' is. I never heard the
like of it. Never. An' she jest a slip of a young gal, too, an' all."

But Buck's patience was quite exhausted, and, without a moment's
hesitation, he brushed the well-meaning but voluble woman aside and
carried the girl into the house. He needed no guidance here. He knew
which was the best bedroom and walked straight in