as the spring, the very thing they most wanted.
Perforce Felix was invested with attributes beyond nature.

The report spread; his own old friends came in a crowd to see the new
spring, others journeyed from afar. In a week, Felix having meanwhile
returned to Wolfstead, his fame had for the second time spread all over
the district. Some came a hundred miles to see him. Nothing he could say
was listened to; these simple, straightforward people understood nothing
but facts, and the defeat of the gipsies and the discovery of the spring
seemed to them little less than supernatural. Besides which, in
innumerable little ways Felix's superior knowledge had told upon them.
His very manners spoke of high training. His persuasive voice won them.
His constructive skill and power of planning, as shown in the palisades
and enclosure, showed a grasp of circumstances new to them. This was a
man such as they had never before seen.

They began to bring him disputes to settle; he shrank from this position
of judge, but it was useless to struggle; they would wait as long as he
liked, but his decision they would have, and no other. Next came the
sick begging to be cured. Here Felix was firm; he would not attempt to
be a physician, and they went away. But, unfortunately, it happened that
he let out his knowledge of plants, and back they came. Felix did not
know what course to pursue; if by chance he did any one good, crowds
would beset him; if injury resulted, perhaps he would be assassinated.
This fear was quite unfounded; he really had not the smallest idea of
how high he stood in their estimation.

After much consideration, Felix hit upon a method which would save him
from many inconveniences. He announced his intention of forming a
herb-garden in which to grow the best kind of herbs, and at the same
time said he would not administer any medicine himself, but would tell
their own native physicians and nurses all he knew, so that they could
use his knowledge. The herb-garden was at once begun in the valley; it
could not contain much till next year, and meantime if any diseased
persons came Felix saw them, expressed his opinion to the old shepherd
who was the doctor of the tribe, and the latter carried out his
instructions. Felix did succeed in relieving some small ailments, and
thereby added to his reputation.

CHAPTER XXVIII

FOR AURORA

Felix now began to find out for himself the ancient truth, that
difficulties always co