e shallows Northrup
was filling while he listened.

Peter was in his element and drawled on:

"The wildest storm you ever saw round these parts--snow and gale; they
don't usually hang together long, but they did that night. It was a
regular night if there ever was one. Nobody stirring abroad 'less he
had to. Ole Doc was out--someone over the mine-way had got mussed up
with the machinery. Ole Doc was a minister as well as a doctor. He'd
tried both jobs and used to say it came in handy, but he leaned most
to medicine as being, what you might say, more practical."

"You needn't be sacrilegious, brother," Polly interjected. "The story
won't lose anything by holding to reverence."

"Oh, well," Heathcote chuckled, "have it any way you want to. Ole Doc
had us coming and going, that's what I'm getting over. If he found he
couldn't help folks to live, he plumped about and helped 'em to
die. Great man, ole Doc! Came as you did, son, and settled. We never
knew anything about his life before he took root here. Well, that
night I'm telling you about, he was on his way back from the mines
when he spied a fire on the up-side of the lake. He said it looked
mighty curious shining and flaming in the blinding whiteness. It
was Dan Hamlin's shack. Later we heard what had happened. Dan had
come home drunk--when he wasn't drunk you couldn't find a decenter
man than Hamlin, but liquor made him quarrelsome. His wife was
going to have a baby--Mary-Clare, to be exact--and when he came in
with Jack Seaver, the mail-carrier, there was a row on concerning
something Seaver hadn't brought that Hamlin had ordered for his
wife. There never was any reasoning with Hamlin when he was
drunk, so Seaver tried to settle the question by a fight. Seaver was
like that--never had any patience. Lamp turned over, set the shack
on fire!" Peter breathed hard.

"Mrs. Hamlin ran for her life and the two men ran from justice. Seaver
came back later and told the story. Hamlin shot himself the following
day when he heard what had happened. Blamed fool! Mary-Clare was left,
but she didn't seem to amount to much in the beginning. It was this
way: Mrs. Hamlin ran till she fell in a snowdrift. Ole Doc found her
there." Heathcote paused. The logs fell apart and the room grew hot.
Northrup started as if roused from a dream.

"Yes, sir!" Heathcote went on. "Ole Doc found her there and, well,
sir, he was doctor and minister for sure that night. There wasn't no
choice as y