him; one felt that he was the wielder of great powers over the enemies, disease and pain, and that his brave hazel eyes showed a rare thoughtfulness and foresight.  The rough driving coat which he had thrown off revealed a slender figure with the bowed shoulders of an untiring scholar.  His head was finely set and scholarly, and there was that about him which gave certainty, not only of his sagacity and skill, but of his true manhood, his mastery of himself.  Not only in this farm-house kitchen, but wherever one might place him, he instinctively took command, while from his great knowledge of human nature he could understand and help many of his patients whose ailments were not wholly physical.  He seemed to read at a glance the shame and sorrow of the young woman who had fled to the home of her childhood, dying and worse than defeated, from the battle-field of life.  And in this first moment he recognized with dismay the effects of that passion for strong drink which had been the curse of more than one of her ancestors.  Even the pallor and the purifying influence of her mortal illness could not disguise these unmistakable signs.

“You can’t do me any good, doctor,” she whispered.  “I shouldn’t have let you come if it had been only that.  I don’t care how soon I am out of this world.  But I want you should look after my little girl,” and the poor soul watched the physician’s face with keen anxiety as if she feared to see a shadow of unwillingness, but none came.

“I will do the best I can,” and he still held her wrist, apparently thinking more of the fluttering pulse than of what poor Adeline was saying.

“That was what made me willing to come back,” she continued, “you don’t know how close I came to not doing it either.  John will be good to her, but she will need somebody that knows the world better by and by.  I wonder if you couldn’t show me how to make out a paper giving you the right over her till she is of age?  She must stay here with mother, long as she wants her.  ’Tis what I wish I had kept sense enough to do; life hasn’t been all play to me;” and the tears began to roll quickly down the poor creature’s thin cheeks.  “The only thing I care about is leaving the baby well placed, and I want her to have a good chance to grow up a useful woman.  And most of all to keep her out of their hands, I mean her father’s folks.  I hate ’em, and he cared more for ’em than he did for me, long at the last of it....  I could tell you stories!”—­

“But not to-night, Addy,” said the doctor gravely, as if he were speaking to a child.  “We must put you to bed and to sleep, and you can talk about all these troublesome things in the morning.  You shall see about the papers too, if you think best.  Be a good girl now, and let your mother help you to bed.”  For the resolute spirit had summoned the few poor fragments of vitality that were left, and the sick woman was growing more and more excited.  “You may have all the pillows you wish for,