ony had been so very quiet the whole evening that Phil knew his mind
must be taken up with some serious thought.

"What ails you, Tony?" he finally asked, as they still sat there, no
one seeming in any hurry to retire on this night. "I wouldn't worry
over things, if I were you. Leave matters to me. I'm dead sure I've
got that along with me to win over your awful dad, once he learns the
truth."

Tony sighed heavily.

"That sound well, Phil," he muttered disconsolately; "yuh mean all
right, sure; but yuh don't know McGee! He's gut a terrible temper!
Sometimes my mother, even she is 'fraid uh him. Then 'gain, he the
kindest man alive. Never know what come. Just like storm, he jump up
in summer--one minit sunshine, next howl, and pour down."

"And then it clears up, with the sun shining brighter than ever, ain't
that so, Tony? Of course it is. Well," went on Phil, sagely, "I guess
I can size the McGee up, all right. He's just got a fiendish temper.
He does things on the spur of the moment, that he's sorry for
afterwards. All right. I can understand such a man; and Tony, take it
for me, I'd rather deal with such a fiery disposition than the cold,
calculating one of the man who never gets mad. I'm going to win over
the McGee, see if I don't."

"Huh! just hope yuh do, Phil," said the other, eagerly. "If anybody
kin do that, yuh kin, I declar. But I'm 'fraid 'bout what he does w'en
he larns that yuh happens tuh be the boy uh Doc Lancing!"

"But Tony, you were thinking about something else too, besides this,"
the other went on, smilingly.

"Yep, that so, Phil," replied Tony, promptly, as though relieved in a
measure to change the conversation to some other subject.

"Was it not about the little sister you left up-river?" Phil continued;
for he could read the other like an open book.

"Madge!" murmured the swamp boy, and his soft way of pronouncing that
sweet name was the nearest approach to a caress in the human voice Phil
had ever heard.

"You're wondering now if the good doctor from the North has arrived on
time; and how the operation is going to pan out? Of course you're
worried; because you must be anxious to know the best, or the worst.
It was a shame that they chased you out of town before he arrived."

"I think so many times," said Tony; "but now I see it not so bad. If I
stay thar I never know you an' Larry. It heap worth while that I be
'long with yuh when yuh kim down hyah tuh the land uh