"Eh? eh?"
Carlton made a fresh effort with shut eyes.
"No food . . . faint for want . . . there no eggs?"
"Eggs? Why, yes, here's one."
"Beat up for me . . . too bad to speak."
The sexton looked more sententious than ever.
"Ah, I thought as how you'd been bad," said he, with all the nods of the successful seer. "I thought as how you'd been bad!"
"It's only been a cold," whispered Carlton, in sudden terror of the public pity.
"Only a cold?"
"Oh, yes—that's all."