ar--as her brother had said, beginning to recover,
and so far this was consolatory; but there was not within the walls of
the house, earthly comfort, or food or nourishment of any kind. Poor
Mary was literally gasping for want of sustenance, and a few hours more
might have been fatal to them all. There was no fire--no gruel, milk or
anything that could in the slightest possible degree afford them relief.
Her brother Denny, however, who had been desired by her to fetch his
purchases directly to their cabin, soon returned, and almost at a moment
that might be called the crisis, not of their malady, for that had
passed, but of their fate itself, his voice was heard, shouting from a
distance that he had discharged his commission; for we may observe that
no possible inducement could tempt him to enter that or any other house
where fever was at work. Mave lost little time in administering to their
wants and their weaknesses. With busy and affectionate hands she did all
that could be done for them at that particular juncture. She prepared
food for Mary, made whey and gruel, and left as much of her little purse
as she thought could be spared from the wants of Sarah M'Gowan.

In the course of two or three days afterwards, however, Sarah's
situation was very much changed for the better; but until that change
was effected, Mave devoted as much time to the poor girl as she could
possibly spare. Nor was the force of her example without its beneficial
effects in the neighborhood, especially as regarded Sarah herself. The
courage she displayed, despite her constitutional timidity, communicated
similar courage to others, in consequence of which Sarah was scarcely
ever without some one in her bleak shed to watch and take care of her.
Her father, however, on hearing of her situation, availed himself of
what some of the neighbors considered a mitigation of her symptoms, and
with as much care and caution as possible, she was conveyed home on a
kind of litter, and nurse-tended by an old woman from the next village,
Nelly having disappeared from the neighborhood.

The attendance of this old woman, by the way, surprised the Prophet
exceedingly. He had not engaged her to attend on Sarah, nor could he
ascertain who had. Upon this subject she was perfectly inscrutable. All
he could know or get out of her was, that she had been engaged; and
he could perceive also, that she was able to procure her many general
comforts, not usually to be had about