“That is not necessary”, said Adele; “The Dr. has given me directions about the medicines.  Here is breakfast all ready for you, Aunt Patty.  Sit down and eat it, while it is hot.  I will go to the gentleman’s room and gather up what you have left there.  Come, sit down now”.

Adele placed a pot of hot coffee and a plate of warm rolls upon the table.

Mrs. McNab stood for a moment, much perplexed between her impulse to go back to Mr. Brown’s room and unburden her mind to Mrs. Dubois, and the desire to partake immediately of the tempting array upon the breakfast-table.  Finally, her material wants gained the ascendency and she sat down very composedly to a discussion of the refreshments, while Adele, anticipating that result, hastened up stairs to collect the remaining insignia of that worthy woman’s departing greatness.

Mrs. Dubois, on going to Mr. Brown’s room, had found the atmosphere close and suffocating, and that gentleman, tossing restlessly on the bed from side to side, talking to himself in a wild delirium.  She left the door ajar and began bathing his fevered head in cool water.  This seemed to soothe him greatly and he sank back almost immediately into a deathlike slumber, in which he lay when Adele entered the chamber.

Cautioned by her mother’s uplifted finger, she moved about noiselessly, until she had made up a large and miscellaneous package of articles; then descended quietly, inwardly resolving that the “Nuss” as she called herself, should not for several weeks at least, revisit the scene of her late operations.

Mrs. McNab was still pursuing her breakfast, and Adele sat down, with what patience she could command, to wait for the close.

“You’ll be wanting some ain to watch to-night, Miss Ady”, said Aunt Patty.

“Yes, Mr. Norton will do that.  He has offered many times to watch.  He will be very kind and attentive to the invalid, I know”.

“I s’pose he’ll do as weel as he knows hoo, but I havena much faith in a mon that sings profane sangs and ca’s ’em relegious heems, to a people that need the bread o’ life broken to ’em”.

“Have you heard him sing, Aunt Patty?  I did not know you had attended his meetings at the grove”.

“I havena, surely.  But when the windows were up, I heard him singin’ them jigs and reels, and I expectin’ every minut to see the men, women, and bairns a dancin’”.

“They sit perfectly still, while he is singing”, said Adele, “and listen as intently as if they heard an angel.  His voice is sometimes like a flute, sometimes like a trumpet.  Did you hear the words he sang?”

“The wards! yes! them’s the warst of a!” said Mrs. McNab, expanding her nostrils with a snort of contempt.  “They bear na resemblance whatever to the Psalms o’ David.  I should as soon think o’ singing the’ sangs o’ Robby Burns at a relegious service as them blasphemous things”.

“Oh!  Aunt Patty, you are wrong.  He sings beautiful hymns, and he tells these people just what they need.  I hope they will listen to him and reform”.