r
unhappy packet, all unknowing of the seeds of destruction it conveyed.

I had had a slight attack of undoubted smallpox when a young child, and
I immediately resolved on going to nurse my poor Dora, secure that she
would now be left to me, and unable to bear the thought of her being
among strangers. I went at once to the office to tell Harry, and Baby
Jack walked with me as far as our roads lay together, asking me on the
way if it were true that Harold Alison was engaged to Miss Tracy, and
on my denial, saying that Mrs. Randall had come down full of the
report; that Nessy had heard of it, and, on Sunday afternoon, had
teased Dora about it to such a degree that she had leaped up from the
sofa and actually boxed his ears, after which she had gone into such a
paroxysm of tears and sobs that she had been sent to bed, and in the
morning the family mind began to perceive she was really ill. The poor
child's passionate jealousy had no doubt prompted her letter, as well
as her desire to take leave of the object of her love; and knowing her
strange character as I did, I was sure the idea was adding tenfold to
the misery of the dreadful illness that was coming on her.

I had to pursue Harold to the potteries, where one of the workmen
directed me to him, as he was helping to put in order some machine for
hoisting that was out of gear. "Bless you, ma'am," said the man, "he
is as strong as any four of we."

When I found him, his consternation was great, and he quite agreed with
me that I had better go up that very afternoon and take charge of Dora,
since Baby Jack answered for it that Randall Horsman would be most
grateful and thankful.

Harold found out the hours for the trains, and did everything to
expedite me. He made it certain that poor little Dora had not been
vaccinated. When she was born, no doctor lived within sixty miles of
Boola Boola, and nobody had ever thought of such a thing.

"And you, Harry?" I asked, with a sudden thrill of alarm.

"Do you expect me to remember?" he asked with a smile.

I begged him to look for the moons upon his arm, and at any rate to
undergo the operation again, since, even if it had been done in his
infancy, the effect might have worn out, and it was only too probable
that in the case of a child born on board a sailing vessel, without a
doctor, it had been forgotten. He gave in to my solicitude so far as
to say that he would see about it, but reminded me that it was not he
who