“Hardly possible, since I have turned them over to my brother practitioners.”

“Which makes the probability the greater.”

The boys joined in the laugh at the physician’s expense, and he, rising from his camp stool, bowed profoundly to his better half.

“The team which brought our stuff over the new road through the woods is the same that I understand brings your supplies. I expected from the way we were hauled and flung about in the plunging of the horses that I should have several cases of broken necks to look after, but we got through better than I expected.”

“Docther, don’t ye think I look pale?”

CHAPTER XVI—The Sunbeam of Gosling Lake

The lugubrious voice of Mike Murphy accompanied as it was by a faint moan, drew every eye upon him. The sight of his red, freckled face and robust looks caused the others to break into laughter, which was renewed when he gazed reprovingly in turn at each.

“I see there’s no use of me craving sympathy, as Mart Coogan said whin he broke through the floor overhead onto the table where the sewing society were drinking tay.”

“Doctor,” said his wife when she regained her self-command, “if all your patients were like him, we should die of starvation.”

“What caused your misgiving regarding your health?” gravely inquired the medical man.