wimming like a dog. He got to me and
helped me out in the water on a high place, and made me stand there
while he worked and tugged at the trace-chains for twenty minutes till
he finally unhitched Bob and pulled him out of the mire. Then he helped
me out and dragged the wagon ashore."

"Plucky little chap!" cried Henley.

"But he's getting paid for it," Dixie said, bitterly. "He got overheated
in the cold mountain-water, and he is in a bad fix, Alfred. I know when
a sick person is dangerous, and he is."

She was moving on toward Pitman's now, and Henley was keeping step by
her side. "You mustn't take it so hard," he said, in an effort to calm
her. "It will come out all right."

"It is a ticklish thing, pneumonia is," she said; "and he hasn't got a
doctor. Sam Pitman says it isn't anything but a cold, and he won't send
for one. I was over there twice to-day, but he don't even want me to
nurse him. I've got my things all done up at home and the folks in bed,
and I'm going to stay with him all night if I have to have a
knock-down-and-drag-out row to do it. I told Sam Pitman that I'd pay for
the doctor out of my own pocket, but that just made him madder. He says
I'm trying to come under his roof and run his affairs, and that I
sha'n't do it. He may not let me in now. I don't know, but he is one of
the devil's imps, if there ever was one. Mrs. Pitman is a little better,
but he's got her under his thumb. She won't raise her voice when he is
around."

"We must have a doctor, that's certain," declared Henley. "You walk on
and I'll run to town and bring Doctor Stone. He knows his business, and
he'll take charge of the case if I back him. If Pitman tries to hinder
us I'll jail him as sure as he's a foot high."

"Oh, Alfred, I wish you would get the doctor. I'm so glad I met you. I
was worried to death. I know how to nurse in ordinary cases, but
pneumonia is so treacherous. Hurry, please; I'll never forget you for
this."

Twenty minutes later Henley entered the gate of Sam Pitman's diminutive
farm-house. Three watch-dogs came from beneath the little front porch,
but, recognizing the visitor, they stood wagging their tails cordially
and uttering low whines of welcome. There was a broken harrow, with
rusty iron teeth, leaning against the house near the log steps; a
top-heavy ash-hopper and a lye-stained trough stood under the spreading
branches of a beechnut-tree beside a rotting cider-press and a huge pot
for heating water