antine with the itch, and I myself experiencing all
the agonies. I think it is King James who says, "The Itch is a disease
well worth the having, for the satisfaction afforded by scratching"; but
I am forced to dissent from the royal opinion. And the cure,--the being
swathed for days in lard-and-sulphur--is almost as bad as the disease.
Worst of all is the thought that for a week I shall not see Nucky.

_Sunday, a week later._

The boys and I were released from quarantine to-day, and I ran to the
hospital the first thing. Nucky looks much better, and is gaining
strength at a normal rate. He is much troubled, however, because Blant
has not been to see him again. "I know things is wrong on Trigger,--I am
afeared Todd is at his devilment again," he said.

I left after promising to spend the afternoon with him, and went with
the other boys to church. Geordie and Hosea were late dressing, and were
left to follow. What was my astonishment, when they did walk in, to see
Geordie wearing Hosea's fine new overcoat he brought from home after
Christmas,--a coat spun, dyed, woven and made by his mother. Hosea wore
the shiny, too-large one which we had given Geordie from the barrels.
During service Geordie, with hair plastered down and eyes on the
ceiling, sang hymns more loudly than ever.

"Why do you wear Hosea's overcoat?" I demanded, as soon as we were out
in the road.

"Him and me's swapped," he replied, carefully avoiding the word
"traded"; "I never wanted to do it, did I, Hose?"

"Why was it done, then,--you seem to have decidedly the best of the
bargain."

"You haint seed the boot he got," replied Geordie, calmly. "Show her
that 'ere watch and chain, Hose."

Hosea drew from his pocket a battered nickel watch, which Geordie held
toward me with the air of a connoisseur. "That 'ere's a
three-dollar-and-ninety-five-cent watch," he said; "I got it a-Christmas
on Bald Eagle, off of Johnny Miles, that just come home from the
Penitentiary."

"Did you pay him that much for it?"

"No'm,--he was offering it around for that,--I got it a little-grain
cheaper."

"How much cheaper?"

"Well, I paid him forty cents spot-cash for it,--he was a-needing
money."

"And you call that a fair trade,--your old worn coat and a forty-cent
watch for his nice new coat his mother made?"

"It's a three-dollar-and-ninety-five-cent watch, Miss Loring," Geordie
repeated, patiently: "_And_, been in the Penitentiary!"

This failing to