had passed.

The news of the disaster traveled fast.

The Alice Lee, coming up from Madison, stopped at all of the villages
and took aboard doctors and those volunteering to help. At midnight they
arrived at the scene of the terrible catastrophe. One of the first
passengers to step ashore was Doctor Hissong, Brad Jackson just behind
him. The old doctor had his saddle-bags and instrument case, and Brad
carried a roll of bandages.

"I wonder if they're still alive, Brad?" said Doctor Hissong. Old Brad's
heart was heavy with forebodings, but suddenly he gave vent to a yell
that nearly upset the nerves of Doctor Hissong: "Fo' Gawd, doctah,
yondah's Shawn!"

Shawn came up, and the old doctor threw his arms around him and cried
for joy. "Is Mrs. Alden alive, Shawn?"

"All right," said Shawn, as he pointed toward the cabin. Doctor Hissong
hastened to the cabin, and when he came up to Mrs. Alden he bent over
her hand and kissed it with a beautiful reverence.

"Thank God for saving you," he said.

"And Shawn," gently added Mrs. Alden.

The survivors went aboard the Alice Lee and the injured and the dead
were also taken on board. Doctor Hissong and the other doctors gave all
their time toward alleviating the sufferings of the unfortunate ones.

When the boat reached Skarrow, it found Mrs. Alden's carriage at the
wharf. Shawn and Brad carried her to it. She turned to Doctor Hissong
and said, "Bring as many of the injured as you can to my home, and those
in need of clothes or assistance in any way."

CHAPTER XVIII

The passing of five years over a country village generally brings but
little change in the existing conditions, but even in this prosaic
atmosphere of easy going methods and action, the calendar marks some
days and events of more than passing notice.

Doctor Hissong had served his term in the Legislature, and proudly
pointed to his record in passing the bill for the construction of extra
locks and dams on the Kentucky river.

Shawn was attending lectures at the Medical College in Louisville,
Doctor Hissong acting as his preceptor and paying all the expenses
necessary to his medical education, and now that he had been two years
in school and was nearing the end of the course, Shawn felt that life
held out a hope for him far beyond the dreams of his earlier years, and
his breast swelled with gratitude to those who had shown him such
friendship and confidence; to the kind old doctor, who trusted him