," said Mrs. Hopkins. "I can't wait here all day."

Thus adjured, Sam made a virtue of necessity, and, shutting his eyes,
gulped down the wormwood. He shuddered slightly when it was all done,
and his face was a study.

"Well done!" said Mrs. Hopkins. "It's sure to do you good."

"I think I'd have got well without," said Sam. "I'm afraid it won't
agree with me."

"If it don't," said Mrs. Hopkins, cheerfully, "I'll try some
castor-oil."

"I guess I won't need it," said Sam, hastily.

"It was awful," said Sam to himself, as his nurse left him alone. "I'd
rather hoe potatoes than take it again. I never see such a terrible
old woman. She would make me do it, when I wasn't no more sick than
she is."

Mrs. Hopkins smiled to herself as she went downstairs.

"Served him right," she said to herself. "I'll l'arn him to be sick.
Guess he won't try it again very soon."

Two hours later Mrs. Hopkins presented herself at Sam's door. He had
been looking out of the window; but he bundled into bed as soon as he
heard her. Appearances must be kept up.

"How do you feel now, Sam?" asked Mrs. Hopkins.

"A good deal better," said Sam, surveying in alarm a cup of some awful
decoction in her hand.

"Do you feel ready to go to work again?"

"Almost," said Sam, hesitating.

"The wormwood-tea did you good, it seems; but you're not quite well
yet."

"I'll soon be well," said Sam, hastily.

"I mean you shall be," said his visitor. "I've brought you some more
medicine."

"Is it tea?"

"No, castor-oil."

"I don't need it," said Sam, getting up quickly. "I'm well."

"If you are not well enough to go to work, you must take some oil."

"Yes, I am," said Sam. "I'll go right out into the field."

"I don't want you to go unless you are quite recovered. I'm sure the
oil will bring you 'round."

"I'm all right, now," said Sam, hastily.

"Very well; if you think so, you can go to work."

Rather ruefully Sam made his way to the potato-field, with his hoe on
his shoulder.

"Tea and castor-oil are worse than work," he thought. "The old woman's
got the best of me, after all. I wonder whether she knew I was makin'
believe."

On this point Sam could not make up his mind. She certainly seemed in
earnest, and never expressed a doubt about his being really sick. But
all the same, she made sickness very disagreeable to him, and he felt
that in future he should not pretend sickness when she was at home. It
made him almost sick to th