nt sorrow which had been his habit. The episode of the storm
and the finding of the baby began to fade, as had faded the visit of
his relatives. It had been a dull, wet day and he was sitting by his
fire, when there came a tap at his door. "Flora;" by which juvenescent
name his aged Indian handmaid was known, usually announced her presence
with an imitation of a curlew's cry: it could not be her. He fancied
he heard the trailing of a woman's dress against the boards, and
started to his feet, deathly pale, with a name upon his lips. But the
door was impatiently thrown open, and showed Bessy Robinson! And the
baby!

With a feeling of relief he could not understand he offered her a seat.
She turned her frank eyes on him curiously.

"You look skeert!"

"I was startled. You know I see nobody here!"

"Thet's so. But look yar, do you ever use a doctor?"

Not clearly understanding her, he in turn asked, "Why?"

"Cause you must rise up and get one now--thet's why. This yer baby of
ours is sick. We don't use a doctor at our house, we don't beleeve in
'em, hain't no call for 'em--but this yer baby's parents mebbee did.
So rise up out o' that cheer and get one."

James North looked at Miss Robinson and rose, albeit a little in doubt,
and hesitating.

Miss Robinson saw it. "I shouldn't hev troubled ye, nor ridden three
mile to do it, if ther hed been any one else to send. But Dad's over
at Eureka, buying logs, and I'm alone. Hello--wher yer goin'?"

North had seized his hat and opened the door. "For a doctor," he
replied amazedly.

"Did ye kalkilate to walk six miles and back?"

"Certainly--I have no horse."

"But I have, and you'll find her tethered outside. She ain't much to
look at, but when you strike the trail she'll go."

"But YOU--how will YOU return?"

"Well," said Miss Robinson, drawing her chair to the fire, taking off
her hat and shawl, and warming her knees by the blaze, "I didn't reckon
to return. You'll find me here when you come back with the doctor.
Go! Skedaddle quick!"

She did not have to repeat the command. In another instant James North
was in Miss Bessy's seat--a man's dragoon saddle,--and pounding away
through the sand. Two facts were in his mind: one was that he, the
"looney," was about to open communication with the wisdom and
contemporary criticism of the settlement, by going for a doctor to
administer to a sick and anonymous infant in his possession; the other
was that