ked the doctor.

"We have looked everywhere, but can't find a trace of them, and we
should have thought that they had lost their lives in the fire, only the
building where they lay was not touched, and they had not merely
disappeared, but they had taken their clothes with them, and as much
else as they could lay hands on," replied the man, and the doctor was so
tickled that he burst out laughing at the story.

"It does not look as if the outbreak of smallpox could have been very
serious," he remarked.

"Just what everyone is saying, and the boys are downright mad with old
Mother Twiney because the old woman could not tell whether it was really
smallpox or not; but, as I said, you could not expect an ignorant woman
to know a disease of that sort, and we had better have a scare that
ended in smoke than let the real thing gain ground without our taking
any steps to stamp it out," said the man, and then he turned off short
between two heaps of smoking ruins, and the doctor led Rocky, snuffing
and snorting, past the smouldering fire to the cool shadow of the forest
beyond.

"The doctor and his patient are in that hut yonder. It is where the
smallpox patients were lying; but there was no other place, and so we
had to put them there," said the man; and the doctor, turning round,
said to Nealie:

"You had better get down now and wait here by the horse while I go and
have a look at your father. Oh yes, I will come back for you in a few
minutes, and then I shall be able to arrange with this good man about
somewhere to shelter you for the night. I dare say the accommodation
will not be very grand, seeing the condition of things here."

"I don't mind about accommodation, but I do want to go to my father,"
said Nealie, her voice breaking in a sob as she scrambled down from the
cart, ignoring the hand her companion stretched out to help her, and
then she stood beside Rocky leaning her head against his side, while her
heart beat so furiously that it seemed to her the man who told them the
news, and was still lingering near, must hear it thumping away against
her side.

Would Dr. Plumstead never come? How could he be so cruel as to keep her
waiting so long?

"Ah, what news have you for me?" she asked, as the doctor emerged from
the hut with a quick step and a very grave face indeed.

"Nothing very good, I fear," he said quietly, and then turned to the man
and asked him to see that the horse was fed and cared for without dela