s of no account.

"Ban't nothing. Just a shivering an' stabbing in the chest. My awn
fulishness to be out listening to they bells in the frost. But no call
to fear. I awnly axed my li'l servant to get me a cup o' tea, an' she
comed an' would light the fire, an' would go for doctor, though theer
ban't no 'casion at all."

"Every occasion, an' the gal was right, an' it shawed gude sense in such
a dinky maid as her. Nothin' like taaking a cold in gude time. Do 'e
catch heat from the fire?"

Mrs. Blanchard's eyes were dull, and her breathing a little disordered.
Will instantly began to bustle about. He added fuel to the flame, set on
a kettle, dragged blankets out of cupboards and piled them upon his
mother. Then he found a pillow-case, aired it until the thing scorched,
inserted a pillow, and placed it beneath the patient's head. His
subsequent step was to rummage dried marshmallows out of a drawer,
concoct a sort of dismal brew, and inflict a cup upon the sick woman.
Doctor Parsons still tarrying, Will went out of doors, knocked a brick
from the fowl-house wall, brought it in, made it nearly red hot, then
wrapped it up in an old rug and applied it to his parent's feet,--all of
which things the sick woman patiently endured.

"You 'm doin' me a power o' gude, dearie," she said, as her discomfort
and suffering increased.

Presently Doctor Parsons arrived, checked Will in fantastic experiments
with a poultice, and gave him occupation in a commission to the
physician's surgery. When he returned, he heard that his mother was
suffering from a severe chill, but that any definite declaration upon
the case was as yet impossible.

"No cause to be 'feared?" he asked.

"'T is idle to be too sanguine. You know my philosophy. I've seen a
scratched finger kill a man; I've known puny babes wriggle out of
Death's hand when I could have sworn it had closed upon them for good
and all. Where there 's life there 's hope."

"Ess, I knaw you," answered Will gloomily; "an' I knaw when you say that
you allus mean there ban't no hope at all."

"No, no. A strong, hale woman like your mother need not give us any fear
at present. Sleep and rest, cheerful faces round her, and no amateur
physic. I'll see her to-night and send in a nurse from the Cottage
Hospital at once."

Then it was that Miller Lyddon arrived, and presently Will returned
home. He wholly mistook Phoebe's frantic reception, and assumed that her
tears must be flowing for Mrs