you got there, Claudia?"

"Oh, papa, it is Ishmael Worth! He has killed himself, I fear, in saving
me! My horses ran away, ran directly towards the steeps above the river,
and would have plunged over if he had not started forward and turned
their heads in time; but the horses, as they turned, knocked him down
and ran over him!" cried Claudia, in almost breathless vehemence.

"What was Sam doing all this time?" inquired the judge, as he stood
contemplating the insensible boy.

"Oh, papa, he sprang from the carriage as soon as the horses became
unmanageable and ran away! But don't stop here asking useless questions!
Lift him out and take him into the house! Gently, papa! gently," said
Claudia, as Judge Merlin slipped his long arms under the youth's body
and lifted him from the carriage.

"Now, then, what do you expect me to do with him?" inquired Judge
Merlin, looking around as if for a convenient place to lay him on the
grass.

"Oh, papa, take him right into the spare bedroom on the lower floor! and
lay him on the bed. I have sent for a doctor to attend him here,"
answered Claudia, as she sprang from the carriage and led the way into
the very room she had indicated.

"He is rather badly hurt," said the judge, as he laid Ishmael upon the
bed and arranged his broken limbs as easily as he could.

"'Rather badly!' he is crushed nearly to death! I told you the whole
carriage passed over him!" cried Claudia, with a hysterical sob, as she
bent over the boy.

"Worse than I thought," continued the judge, as he proceeded to unbutton
Ishmael's coat and loosen his clothes. "Did you say you sent for a
doctor?"

"Yes! as soon as it happened! He ought to be here in an hour from this!"
replied Claudia, wringing her hands.

"His clothes must be cut away from him; it might do his fractured limbs
irreparable injury to try to draw off his coat and trousers in the usual
manner. Leave him to me, Claudia, and go and tell old Katie to come
here and bring a pair of sharp shears with her," ordered the judge.

Claudia stooped down quickly, gave one wistful, longing, compassionate
gaze at the still, cold white face of the sufferer, and then hurried out
to obey her father's directions. She sent old Katie in, and then threw
off her hat and mantle and sat down on the step of the door to watch for
the doctor's approach, and also to be at hand to hear any tidings that
might come from the room of the wounded boy.

More than an hour Claudia