r looked blank; but he doggedly nodded his head, nevertheless,
and wrote it down; and off went the letter at precisely 10:47.45, as the
doctor said.

* * * * *

Later--when the excitement had all subsided and we sat dreaming in the
warmth and glow--the doctor took little Sammy in his lap, and told him
he was a very good boy, and looked deep in his eyes, and stroked his
hair, and, at last, very tenderly bared his knee. Sammy flinched at
that; and he said "Ouch!" once, and screwed up his face, when the
doctor--his gruffness all gone, his eyes gentle and sad, his hand as
light as a mother's--worked the joint, and felt the knee-cap and socket
with the tips of his fingers.

"And is this the rheumatiz the Prompt Exterminator is to cure, Sammy?"
he asked.

"Ith, zur."

"Ah, is _that_ where it hurts you? Right on the point of the bone,
there?"

"Ith, zur."

"And was there no fall on the rock, at all? Oh, there _was_ a fall? And
the bruise was just there--where it hurts so much? And it's very hard to
bear, isn't it?"

Sammy shook his head.

"No? But it hurts a good deal, sometimes, does it not? That's too bad.
That's very sad, indeed. But, perhaps--perhaps, Sammy--I can cure it for
you, if you are brave. And are you brave? No? Oh, I think you are. And
you'll try to be, at any rate, won't you? Of course! That's a good boy."

And so, with his sharp little knives, the doctor cured Sammy Jutt's
knee, while the lad lay white and still on the kitchen table. And 'twas
not hard to do; but had not the doctor chanced that way, Sammy Jutt
would have been a cripple all his life.

* * * * *

"Doctor, zur," said Matilda Jutt, when the children were put to bed,
with Martha to watch by Sammy, who was still very sick, "is you really
got a bottle o' Pine's Prompt?"

The doctor laughed. "An empty bottle," said he. "I picked it up at
Poverty Cove. Thought it might come useful. I'll put Sammy's medicine in
that. They'll not know the difference. And you'll treat the knee with it
as I've told you. That's all. We must turn in at once; for we must be
gone before the children wake in the morning."

"Oh, ay, zur; an'----" she began: but hesitated, much embarrassed.

"Well?" the doctor asked, with a smile.

"Would you mind puttin' some queer lookin' stuff in one o' they bottles
o' yours?"

"Not in the least," in surprise.

"An' writin' something on a bit o' paper," she w