"What do you want?" she next asked.
"What—he said he would—give!" and then to complicate matters Sandy rolled over in a huddled heap and fainted dead away! Bob, bereft and frightened, hovered over him, emitting yelps and howls that shattered the summer calm.
The Markhams only took their meals at Stagg's Place; a small cottage near by was their lodging rooms, and to that Levi Markham ordered two coloured boys to carry the prostrate Sandy.
An hour later Matilda Markham sat beside the couch in the shaded living-room and looked thoughtfully upon the form stretched thereon. From outside the voice of her brother came appealing to all that was reasonable and sensible in Bob.
"Of course you can see your master, my good fellow. Just be patient, patient!"
Levi Markham liked all animals, and something about Bob's rugged ugliness and faithfulness called forth his admiration and sympathy.
"Come, come, old fellow, eat and drink. He's safe enough inside. You know well, you rascal, that he is inside!"
Bob blinked confidingly, but he would not touch the food which stood alluringly near at hand in a shining tin plate.
Sandy had recovered from his faint, but he was strangely weak and an inner stillness bound him speechless and immovable. He lay there—thinking, thinking! He knew a woman was beside him watching his every breath; he heard Bob outside and the sternly kind voice talking to him. But nothing mattered. Yes, one thing did matter. The money was in his pocket and Massachusetts was still in the near future!
Miss Matilda, by the process known only to her sex, had labelled and classified the boy on the sofa.