e added,
with a twinkle in his eye. "Howsomever, he's a good one, he is,
wherever he be from, and I don't care who says 'tain't so"--high
praise from the laconic Jake.

The Water Lily was at anchor when we reached the wharf, and a boat
already rowing in to the landing. A minute later, just as I had
expected, Joe was wringing me by the hand, as if he had a design on
the continuity of my bones.

"Nancy's bad," he blurted out. "Won't you come and see her to oncet?"

I smiled in spite of my anxiety as I looked down at my trusty bag.
"I'm all ready," I replied.

The deck of the schooner was crowded with people as we came alongside.
The main hatch had been taken off, and the women and children had come
up for an airing. They, like our friends, were taking their passages
home from their fishing stations. They are known as "freighters."

"The skipper's been awful good, Doctor. When he heard Nancy were sick,
he brought her out of t' hold, and give her his own bunk. But for that
she'd have been dead long ago. She had t' fits that bad; and no one
knowed what to do. She were ill when t' vessel comed into t' harbour,
and t' skipper waited nigh three days till she seemed able to come
along. Then her got worse again. Not a thing have passed her lips this
two days now."

In the little, dark after-cabin I found the sick girl, scarcely
recognizable as the bonny lass whose wedding we had celebrated the
previous winter with such rejoicings. There were two young women in
the cabin, told off to "see to her," the kindly skipper and his
officers having vacated their quarters and gone forward for poor
Nancy's benefit.

The case was a plain one. It was a matter of life and death. Before
morning a baby boy had been brought into the world in that strange
environment only to live a few hours. The following day we ventured to
move the mother, still hanging between life and death, to the
hospital.

And now came the dilemma of our lives. It was impossible to delay the
schooner, as already the crowd on board had lost several days; and it
was not safe or right so late in the year to be keeping these other
families from their homes. The Water Lily, so the kindly captain
informed us, must absolutely sail south the following morning. My own
vessel was in the same plight. We had more work outlined that we must
do than the already forming ice promised to give us time to
accomplish. To send poor Nancy untended to sea in a schooner was
simply to si