llers!"

Mrs. Snow rose to her feet quietly, but with a determined air.

"Are you goin' right back soon's you've got the Doctor, Mr. Mayo?" she
asked.

"Why, no, I wa'n't. I ain't been to my store this mornin', and I'm
'fraid I ought to be there."

To be frank, Abner was too great a sensation lover to forfeit the
opportunity of springing his startling news on the community.

"Then, Josiah, you'll have to harness Dan'l and take me down. I mustn't
wait another minute."

"Why, Mrs. Snow!" expostulated Captain Jerry, "you mustn't go down
there. The Doctor's goin', and I'll go, and Pashy's there already."

But the housekeeper merely waved him aside.

"I want you to stay here with Elsie," she said. "There's no tellin' how
long I may be gone. Josiah 'll drive me down, won't you, Josiah?"

There was no lack of enthusiasm in the "able seaman's" answer. The boy
was only too glad of the chance.

"But it ain't fit weather for you to be out in. You'll git soakin' wet."

"I guess if Pashy Davis can stand it, I can. Elsie, will you come and
help me git ready, while Josiah's harnessin'?"

As they entered the chamber above, Elsie was thunderstruck to see her
companion seat herself in the rocker and cover her face with her hands.
If it had been anyone else it would not have been so astonishing, but
the cool, self-possessed housekeeper--she could scarcely believe it.

"Why, Mrs. Snow!" she exclaimed, "what IS it?"

The lady from Nantucket hastily rose and wiped her eyes with her apron.

"Oh, nothin'," she answered, with an attempt at a smile. "I'm kind of
fidgety this mornin', and the way that man started off to tell his yarn
upset me; that's all. I mustn't be such a fool."

She set about getting ready with a vim and attention to detail that
proved that her "fidgets" had not affected her common-sense. She was
pale and her hands trembled a little, but she took a covered basket and
packed in it cloth for bandages, a hot-water bottle, mustard, a bottle
of liniment, and numerous other things likely to be of use. Last of all,
she added a bottle of whisky that had been prescribed as a stimulant for
John Baxter.

"I s'pose some folks would think 'twas terrible carryin' this with me,"
she observed. "A woman pitched into me once for givin' it to her husband
when he was sick. I told her I didn't favor RHUBARB as a steady drink,
but I hoped I knew enough to give it when 'twas necessary."

Ralph and Captain Perez were surprised m