The child, when lifted in, sank back upon the seat, pale and exhausted.  Doctor R—­asked him no question; and when the carriage stopped, directed the driver to carry him in.  He then, with his own hands, carefully removed his shoes and stockings.  “My poor, poor child!” said he in pity and astonishment, on beholding the condition of Henry’s feet.  The harsh remedy prescribed by Sharp, if the subsequent treatment had been tender and judicious, might have been salutary; but, after it, to confine the boy’s feet in hard, tight new shoes, and to send him out upon the street, was to induce a high state of inflammation, and, in the advanced state of the chilblains, to endanger mortification.  Several of the large ulcerous cracks, which were bleeding freely, the doctor dressed, and then, cutting a number of short strips of adhesive plaster, he applied them to the skin over the heel and foot, in various directions, so as almost completely to cover every portion of the surface.

“How does that feel?” he asked, looking into Henry’s face with an air of relief and satisfaction after he had finished the first foot.

“It feels a good deal better,” replied the child, his voice and the expression of his countenance both indicating that he no longer suffered so excruciatingly as he had but a short time previously.

The other foot was soon dressed in the same way.  Doctor R—­then went back into the house and got a loose pair of stockings and a light pair of shoes, belonging to one of the apothecary’s children, from their mother.  These fitted Henry comfortably, and when he stood down upon his feet he did not experience any pain.

“That feels a good deal better, don’t it?” said the doctor, smiling.

“Yes, indeed it does,” and Henry looked his gratitude; and yet, blended with that look, was an expression that seemed to the doctor an appeal for protection.

“You’re afraid to go back now, ain’t you, since you’ve stayed so long?” he asked, in a tone meant to encourage the child’s confidence.

“Indeed I am.  Mr. Sharp will be almost sure to beat me.”

“What a very devil incarnate the man must be!” muttered Dr. R—­to himself, taking three or four strides across the floor.  “I shall have to take the little fellow home, and browbeat his master, I suppose,” he continued.  Then addressing Henry, he said, aloud—­

“Well, I’ll take you home to him in my carriage, and settle all that for you, my little man; so don’t be frightened.”

Acting upon this resolution, Dr. R—­soon drove up before the hatter’s shop, and, lifting out Henry himself, led him into the presence of his astonished master.

“What’s the matter now?” asked the latter, roughly, and with a forbidding aspect of countenance.

“The matter is simply this, sir,” responded Doctor R—­, firmly.  “I found this little boy of yours on the street absolutely unable to get along a step further; and on taking him into the drug store above, and examining his feet, I found them in a most shocking condition!  Why, sir, in twelve hours mortification would have commenced, when nothing could have saved his life but the amputation of both limbs.”  The sober earnestness of Doctor R—­caused Sharp to feel some alarm, and he said—­