I know I'm drunk, Major Phillips. I'm as drunk as a beast; but I
ain't--hic--dead drunk. I know what I'm about."

"No, you don't. Go home."

"Yes, I dzoo. I'm a brute; I'm a hog; I'm a--dzwhat you call it? I'm a
villain."

Joe tried to straighten himself up, and look at his employer; but he
could not, and suddenly bursting into tears, he threw himself heavily
into a chair, weeping bitterly in his inebriate paroxysm. He sobbed,
and groaned, and talked incoherently. He acted strangely, and Major
Phillips's attention was excited.

"What is the matter, Joe?" he asked; and his anger towards Harry
seemed to have subsided.

"I tell you I am a villain, Major Phillips," blubbered Joe.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Haven't I been on a drunk, and left my family to starve and freeze?"
groaned Joe, interlarding his speech with violent ebullitions of
weeping. "Wouldn't my poor wife, and my poor children--O my God," and
the poor drunkard covered his face with his hands, and sobbed like an
infant.

"What is the matter? What do you mean, Joe?" asked Major Phillips, who
had never seen him in this frame before.

"Wouldn't they all have died if Harry hadn't gone and fed 'em, and
split up wood to warm 'em?"

As he spoke, Joe sprang up, and rushed towards Harry, and in his
drunken frenzy attempted to embrace him.

"What does this mean, Harry?" said the stable keeper, turning to our
hero, who, while Joe was telling his story, had been thinking of
something else.

"What a fool I was to get mad!" thought he. "What would she say if she
had seen me just now? Poor Julia! perhaps she is dead, even now."

"My folks would have died if it hadn't been for him," hiccoughed Joe.

"Explain it, Harry," added the major.

"The lame girl, Katy, came down here after her father early in the
evening. She seemed to be in trouble and I thought I would go up and
see what the matter was. I found them in rather a bad condition,
without any wood or anything to eat. I did what I could for them, and
came away," replied Harry.

"Give me your hand, Harry!" and the major grasped his hand like a
vise. "You are a good fellow," he added, with an oath.

"Forgive me, Mr. Phillips, for saying what I did; I was mad," pleaded
Harry.

"So was I, my boy; but we won't mind that. You are a good fellow, and
I like your spunk. So you have really been taking care of Joe's family
while he was off on a drunk?"

"I didn't do much, sir."

"Look here, Harry, and y