“I suppose I shouldn’t regret takin’ dog-pizen, if it cured my back and give me the sleep I needed, but it was a dreadful narrow escape.  And your takin’ the medicine away from me and feedin’ it to Fido was certainly clever, Roger.  Every day you remind me more and more of your pa.”

“Thank you,” answered Roger.  He was struggling with various emotions and found speech almost impossible.

“It’s no more’n right,” she resumed, “that, after having pizened Fido and lost you your place, that Doctor Conrad should stir himself around and get you a better place in the city, but I do hate to have you go, Roger.  It’ll be dreadful lonesome for me.”

“Cheer up, Mother; I haven’t gone yet.  The dog may get well.”

Miss Mattie shook her head sadly.  “No, he won’t,” she sighed.  “I took enough of that medicine to know how powerful it is, and Fido ain’t got no chance.  To-morrow I’ll look over your things.”

An atmosphere of solemnity pervaded the house, and the evening was spent very quietly.  Miss Mattie read her Bible, as on Sunday evenings when she did not go to church, and sternly refused to open The Housewife’s Companion, which lay temptingly near her.

[Sidenote:  Nightmare]

She went to bed early, and Roger soon followed her, having strangely lost his desire to read, and not daring to go to see Barbara more than once a day.  His night was made hideous by visions of himself drawing the cart containing the slumbering Fido into the church where Eloise and Doctor Conrad were being married, while Judge Bascom at the house, was conducting Miss Mattie’s funeral.

In the morning, after breakfast, Roger seriously debated whether or not he should go down to the office.  At last he tossed up a coin and muttered a faint imprecation as he picked it up.

With his hat firmly on and his hands in his pockets, Roger fared forth, whistling determinedly.  He did not want to go to the office, and he dreaded, exceedingly, his next meeting with the irascible Judge.

As it happened, it was not necessary for him to go, for, at the corner of the street which led to the Judge’s house, he met the postmaster’s small son, laboriously dragging the fateful cart of yesterday.  In it were all of Roger’s books and other belongings, including an umbrella which he had loaned to the Judge on a rainy night and expected never to see again.

[Sidenote:  A Brief Message]

The message was brief and very much to the point.  Fido had died painlessly at four o’clock that morning.

XIX

The Dreams Come True

[Sidenote:  Gaining Strength]

The hours Roger had taken from his work in the office had brought nothing but good to Barbara.  She gained strength rapidly after she began to walk, and was soon able to dispense with the cane, though she could not walk easily, nor far.  She tired quickly and was forced to rest often, but she went about the house slowly and even up and down the stairs.