Maggie was unused to flattery, save as it came from her grandmother, Theo, or old Hagar, and now paying no heed to his remark she said:  “Can you stay here alone while I go for help?  Our house is not far away.”

“I’d rather you would remain with me,” he replied; “but as you cannot do both, I suppose you must go.”

“I shan’t be gone long, and I’ll send old Hagar to keep you company.”  So saying, Maggie climbed the bank, and, mounting Gritty, who stood quietly awaiting her, seized the other horse by the bridle and rode swiftly away, leaving the young man to meditate upon the novel situation in which he had so suddenly been placed.

“Aint I in a pretty predicament!” said he, as he tried in vain to move his swollen limb, which was broken in two places, but which being partially benumbed did not now pain him much.  “But it serves me right for chasing a harum-scarum thing when I ought to have been minding my own business and collecting bills for Douglas & Co.  And she says she’s been there, too.  I wonder who she is, the handsome sprite.  I believe I made her more than half jealous talking of my golden-haired Rose; but she is far more beautiful than Rose, more beautiful than anyone I ever saw.  I wish she’d come back again,” and, shutting his eyes, he tried to recall the bright, animated face which had so lately bent anxiously above him.  “She tarries long,” he said at last, beginning to grow uneasy.  “I wonder how far it is; and where the deuce can this old Hagar be, of whom she spoke?”

“She’s here,” answered a shrill voice, and looking up he saw before him the bent form of Hagar Warren, at whose door Maggie had paused for a moment while she told of the accident and begged of Hagar to hasten.

Accordingly, equipped with a blanket and pillow, a brandy bottle and camphor, old Hagar had come, but when she offered the latter for the young man’s acceptance he pushed it from him, saying that camphor was his detestation, but he shouldn’t object particularly to smelling of the other bottle!

“No, you don’t,” said Hagar, who thought him in not quite so deplorable a condition as she had expected to find him.  “My creed is never to give young folks brandy except in cases of emergency.”  So saying, she made him more comfortable by placing a pillow beneath his head; and then, thinking possibly that this to herself was a “case of emergency,” she withdrew to a little distance, and sitting down upon the gnarled roots of an upturned tree drank a swallow of the old Cognac, while the young man, maimed and disabled, looked wistfully at her.