Still at two o'clock in the morning she lay with her candlestick behind her on the pillow, and steadily read The Last of the Mohicans, with all the vicissitudes of the pursuits and dangers of the noble Uncas.
Ma wondered, it is true, that so many of the slender tallow candles were needed this winter.
The sheriff must have a little warm breakfast before going away in the morning.
And now he took leave, and thanked them for the hours that had been so agreeable and cheering, although he came so inconveniently—oh, madame, he knew he came at an inconvenient time. "Although now you have certainly got a right hand in household matters. Yes, Miss Thinka, I have tested you; one does not have the eye of a policeman for nothing.
"Invisible, and yet always at hand, like a quiet spirit in the house—is not that the best that can be said of a woman?" he asked, complimenting her fervently, when he had got his scarf around his fur coat, and went down to the sleigh with beaming eyes and a little grayish stubble of beard—for he had not shaved himself to-day.
"Pleasant man, the sheriff. His heart is in the right place," said the captain when, enlivened and rubbing his hands from the cold, he came in again into the sitting-room.
But father became ill after all the rich food at the slaughtering-time.
The army doctor advised him to drink water and exercise a good deal; a toddy spree now and then would not do him any harm.
And it did not improve the rush of blood to his head that Christmas came so soon after.
Father was depressed, but was reluctant to be bled, except the customary twice a year, in the spring and autumn.