Dr. Kennedy had been to Buffalo, and taken the smallpox, so his

attending physician said, and the news spread rapidly, frightening

nervous people as they never were frightened before.

Nellie had been home for a week or two, but at the first alarm she fled, rushing

headlong through the hall and down the stairs, unmindful of the

tremulous voice, which cried imploringly, "Don't leave me, daughter,

to die alone!"

Hannah followed next, holding the camphor bottle to her nose, and

saying to John when he expostulated with her, "I reckon I's not

gwine to spile what little beauty I've got with that fetched

complaint."

"But, mother," persisted John, "may be it's nothin' but vary-o-lord

after all, and that don't mark folks, you know."

"You needn't talk to me about your very-o-lord," returned Hannah. "I

know it's the very-o-devil himself, and I won't have them pock-ed

marks on me for all the niggers in Virginny."

"Then go," said John, "hold tight to the camphire, and run for your

life, or it may cotch you before you git out of the house."

Hannah needed no second bidding to run, and half an hour later she

was domesticated with a colored family who lived not far from the

Hill. Thus left to themselves, Louis and John, together with the

physician, did what they could for the sick man, who at last

proposed sending for Maude, feeling intuitively that she would not

desert him as his own child had done. Silent, desolate, and forsaken

the old house looked as Maude approached it, and she involuntarily

held her breath as she stepped into the hall, whose close air seemed

laden with infection.

She experienced no difficulty in finding the sick-room, where Louis' cry of delight, John's expression of joy, and the sick man's whispered words, "God bless you, Maude," more

than recompensed her for the risk she had incurred. Gradually her

fear subsided, particularly when she learned that it was in fact the

varioloid. Had it been possible to remove her brother from danger

she would have done so, but it was too late now, and she suffered

him to share her vigils, watching carefully for the first symptoms

of the disease in him.

In this manner nearly two weeks passed away, and the panic-stricken

villagers were beginning to breathe more freely, when it was told

them one day that Maude and Louis were both smitten with the

disease. Then indeed the more humane said to themselves, "Shall they

be left to suffer alone?" and still no one was found who dared to

breathe the air of the sick-room.




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