“Don’t Fanny! don’t go away!” he cried in a frightened voice.

Joe!  Joe! why will you be so foolish?  It’s nothing but imagination.  Now do lie down and shut your eyes.  Keep them shut.  There now.

And she laid a hand over his eyes and pressed it down tightly.

“I wish Doctor Green was here” said the wretched man.  “He could give me something”

“Shall I go for him?”

“Go Fanny!  Run over right quickly”

“But you won’t keep in bed”

“Yes I will.  There, now” And he drew the clothes over his face “There I’ll lie just so until you come back.  Now run Fanny, and don’t stay a minute”

Scarcely stopping to think Mrs. Morgan went hurriedly from the room and drawing an old shawl over her head started with swift feet for the residence of Doctor Green which was not very far away.  The kind doctor understood at a word the sad condition of her husband and promised to attend him immediately.  Back she flew at even a wilder speed her heart throbbing with vague apprehension.  Oh! what a fearful cry was that which smote her ears as she came within a few paces of home.  She knew the voice, changed as it was by terror, and a shudder almost palsied her heart.  At a single bound she cleared the intervening space and in the next moment was in the room where she had left her husband.  But he was not there!  With suspended breath, and feet that scarcely obeyed her will, she passed into the chamber where little Mary lay.  Not here!

“Joe! husband!” she called in a faint voice.

“Here he is, mother.”  And now she saw that Joe had crept into the bed behind the sick child and that her arm was drawn tightly around his neck.

“You won’t let them hurt me, will you dear?” said the pool frightened victim of a terrible mania.

“Nothing will hurt you father,” answered Mary, in a voice that showed her mind to be clear, and fully conscious of her parent’s true condition.

She had seen him thus before.  Ah! what an experience for a child!

“You’re an angel—­my good angel, Mary,” he murmured, in a voice yet trembling with fear “Pray for me, my child.  Oh ask your father in heaven to save me from these dreadful creatures.  There now!” he cried, rising up suddenly and looking toward the door.  “Keep out!  Go away!  You can’t come in here.  This is Mary’s room, and she’s an angel.  Ah, ha!  I knew you wouldn’t dare come in here—­

    “A single saint can put to flight
    Ten thousand blustering sons of night”

He added in a half wandering way yet with an assured voice, as he laid himself back upon his pillow and drew the clothes over his head.

“Poor father!” sighed the child as she gathered both arms about his neck!  “I will be your good angel.  Nothing shall hurt you here.”

I knew I would be safe where you were,” he whispered—­“I knew it, and so I came.  Kiss me, love.