he doctor. He made the attempt alone,
but Aladdin struggled, and the doctor was old. Mrs. Brackett came to the
rescue and, finally, they got Aladdin, no longer violent, into his bed,
while the doctor, in a soft voice, said what maybe it was and what maybe
it wasn't,--he leaned to a bilious fever,--and prescribed this and that
as sovereign in any case. They darkened the room, and Aladdin was sick
with typhoid fever for many weeks. He was delirious much too much, and
Mrs. Brackett got thin with watching. Occasionally it seemed as if he
might possibly live, but oftenest as if he would surely die.

In his delirium for the most part Aladdin dwelt upon Margaret, so that
his love for her was an old story to Mrs. Brackett. One gay spring
morning, after a terrible night, Aladdin's fever cooled a little, and he
was able to talk in whispers.

"Mrs. Brackett," he said, "Mrs. Brackett."

She came hurriedly to the bed.

"I know you're feelin' better, 'Laddin O'Brien."

He smiled up at her.

"Mrs. Brackett," he said, "I dreamed that Margaret St. John came here to
ask how I was--did she?"

Margaret hadn't. She had not, so hedged was her life, even heard that
Aladdin lay sick.

Mrs. Brackett lied nobly.

"She was here yesterday," she said, "and that anxious to know all about
you."

Aladdin looked like one that had found peace.

"Thank you," he said.

Mrs. Brackett raised his head, pillow and all, very gently, and gave him
his medicine.

"How's Jack?" said Aladdin.

"He comes twice every day to ask about you," said Mrs. Brackett. "He's
livin' with my brother-in-law."

"That's good," said Aladdin. He lay back and dozed. After a while he
opened his eyes.

"Mrs. Brackett-"

"What is it, deary?" The good woman had been herself on the point of
dozing, but was instantly alert.

"Am I going to die?"

"You goin' to die!" She tried to make her voice indignant, but it broke.

"I want to know."

"He wants to know, good land!" exclaimed Mrs. Brackett.

"If a man's going to die," said Aladdin, aeat-sixteen, "he wants to
know, because he has things that have to be done."

"Doctor said you wasn't to talk much," said Mrs. Brackett.

"If I've got to die," said Aladdin, abruptly, "I've got to see
Margaret."

A woman in a blue wrapper, muddy slippers, her gray hair disheveled,
hatless, her eyes bright and wild, burst suddenly upon Hannibal St. John
where he sat in his library reading in the book called "Hesperides."

"S