writhing and tossing about as if he had the devil aside him, afore that."

Jabez took the candle, and held it before Herbert's face; there was a brilliant bloom over the thin sharp features, and the glassy eyes were encircled by a deep blue ring, that showed how rapid was the progress the fever had already made upon his boyish frame.

"Do you feel much pain, my little fellow," asked Jabez, gently, as he lifted him up in his arms.

Herbert moaned and shook his head, and they heard him whisper through those white, parched lips, a prayer for water, or he would be dead.

"Fetch a drink," said Jabez to his father-in-law. Is Nell asleep, d'ye think."

"Yes, and munna be wakened," growled the old man, peevishly; "poor volk cannot lose their night's rest in this way."

"Nell would sit up a week, and never give in to being tired," rejoined her husband, hotly; and then, raising his voice, he cried out-"Nell, old lass! I say, wife, welt a' get up and come here, my woman.'

"Oh dear, Jabez ! and Nell's head bobbed up over the board at the head of the connubial couch, "what is the matter, my man?" she demanded, in a sleepy tone.

"Matter! enough's the matter," growled old Father Joe"the bairn that man o' thine would bring in last night is taking a dying fit."

"No! no! mother" retorted Jabez, gently using his children's epithet to designate the plump little body, that now came tumbling out of bed, exhibiting in its descent one of the neatest ancles and feet in the world-"he's only mortal ill, my pet, and I think we should have a doctor."

"A doctor!" growled old Joe from the side of his bed, on which he had now taken refuge; "and where are we to get enough to pay a doctor, and eight bairns of our own to keep." "He will wait till we can pay him," said Jabez, quietly; "or if you think that 'ill be too long, there's the parish 'un."

"Parish 'un!" screamed Father Joe, rolling himself up in his blankets, "we'll have no parish keep of any kind hereNell came into the world without un, and so did all the bairns, and nothing the parish sends shall ever come across this door, until I'm carried out of it." And a volley of growls followed up this determination of old Joe's, notwithstanding his parsimony, to have no keep from the parish.

Nell and her husband had, in the meanwhile, held a hurried consultation over poor Herbert, the issue of which was, that

Jabez instantly set off for the nearest doctor, whilst Nell, slipping on her gown and stockings, raked up the fire, and threw on a few logs of wood. This latter proceeding instantly aroused old Joe's wrath anew.

"Oh Lord! oh Lord, Nell, is thou not afear'd of being frozen alone in thy bed, some o' these nights, for such shameful extravagance? Them logs ought to have lasted un a week, and there thou's burning 'em wholesale, and for what?-why, for a beggar's brat, who nobody knows."

"We must have some hot water, father," said Nell, quietly proceeding with her operations; "the doctor will be here enow, and a pretty pickle we will be in, if we have none; I never saw such a beautiful boy!" she murmured, as another moan brought her to Herbert's side for a moment.

"Billy was far bonnier!" growled old Joe, crustily; "poor Billy was much bonnier to my thinking.-Now what is the woman blubbering about, I wonder," he yelled out, in a kind of desperation, on seeing his daughter's tears begin to flow; "dost 'e not know that Billy is dead, safe enough?"

"Oh, no! no! no!" sobbed the poor creature, in a subdued tone; "Billy will turn up one of these days, you'll see."

"Pity if he does," growled the old miser, pettishly; " and then seven strong hungry bairns to feed wi' Jabez's poor earnings-seven, quotha! there's an eighth lying there," he muttered, indicating, with a wave of the hand, the crib where Herbert was lying. "How is the little whelp, Nell?"

66

Very ill," sobbed the tender-hearted creature, hanging over Herbert; "he seems quite in a dream, and never opens his eyes, but just moans, moans enough to break one's heart." "He'll die, soon:" mumbled the old man, between his teeth. Oh, father, how dare ye?" said Nell, in a terrified voice; "how dare ye reckon on a fellow-creature's death in that shocking way?-didn't the minister at church on Sunday tell us that to wish a fellow-creature's death, is next to being as bad as murder!"

"Poh! poh!" laughed the old sinner, scoffingly; "they allays tell un that;- if they hung un for such thoughts, there's never a man in all the world 'ud die in his bed.-There's Jabez, dowter," he added, as steps were heard without.

Jabez at that moment appeared at the door, followed by a sleepy-eyed old gentleman, with a white head, and a benevolent expression of countenance. Old Joe was sitting up in his bed, with the blankets folded around him, for the scene was beginning to have a strange, absorbing interest for him.

The little group gathered around the boy's bed-Nell holding the candle, whilst the doctor felt the boy's pulse, and Jabez's

eager, honest face, thrust in between the pair, whilst Herbert lay to all appearance insensible, if not dying, beneath; this was the picture his old bleared eyes were fixed upon.

"How long has the boy been ill, good people?" demanded the little old doctor, putting his hand to his ear.

"Not long, sir, we hope," said Nell, dropping a curtsey; "we made bold to send for you, sir, directly we saw how bad he was."

"Quite right, my good woman," said the old doctor, blandly; "but I think he must have been ill some hours; however, that has nothing to do with the matter; I'm afraid he's caught a very bad fever."

Something stuck in Jabez's throat, for a moment, for he was thinking of his children; but he swallowed it manfully, and whispered in Nell's ear,-"We mun nurse him well, wife, and he'll soon come round."

"Surely, Jabez, dear," rejoined Nell, truthfully, "we aren't beasts, to turn the poor little fellow to the door, I hope.”

Old Joe gave a short, husky cough, as he saw what was passing in the minds of his son and daughter, rather from the expression of their faces, than from anything he actually heard.— "We must get him into a hot bath as soon as possible, my good people," said the doctor. Ah, I see you have plenty of hot water."

،،

Nell's honest face beamed over with good nature, as she answered in the affirmative. The doctor then bandaged Herbert's arm, and bled him, desiring Nell in the meanwhile to get a bath ready, as he would see him in it before he left.

"He has not the look of either of you, my friends," said the old doctor, noticing Herbert's luxuriant, jetty locks, and delicately chisselled features, which certainly corresponded but badly with Jabez's and Nell's flaxen hair, and chubby fea

tures.

"He's no bairn of ours, sir," cried old Joe, from his lair, all his splenetic humours called into full play, at this innocent observation; "he was never across our doorway afore last night, more's the pity!"

"Why more the pity, friend?" demanded the old doctor, mildly.

"Why, because we be poor folk, mister, and have mouths enow and to spare to fill already," answered old Joe, eagerly, clutching the bed clothes in his thin, withered hands, as he spoke ; "and that's why I don't like to see that bairn lying there."

"Like it or not, you must learn to see him lie there, for

many days to come, friend," rejoined the other, quietly; "he is in a high fever, and to remove him, would be his death."

He said the last part of the sentence very emphatically, with his face turned to the old man, as if to fix it on his mind; the other did not reply, except by a low muttering, which none of them could catch, and so the old doctor went on addressing Nell:

"Whatever you want, send up to my house, and you shall have it at once, from my cook.-I am an old man, and childless, and can better afford to feed the hungry than you can."

"Oh, sir,” cried Nell, eagerly, "the poor little thing is welcome to bit and sup, as long as ever Jabez can earn it; it's not much poor folk like us can do, but that little I'm sure we blithely give to any one."

"Ower much of that," growled old Joe, sarcastically.

The old doctor laid his hand kindly on her arm,-" You are doing angel's work, my good woman," he said, gently.

Nell felt that he was speaking approvingly to her, although she scarcely understood him how, so she only dropped another curtsey, and reiterated what she had already said; then the doctor took his leave, shaking Jabez and her by the hand, as he went.

"I'm sure he's a nice, kind gentleman, that, Nell," said Jabez, giving his wife the sovereign their late visitor had popped into his hand, at parting; " and as for the boy, he's welcome to the poor shelter we can give, as long as ever he needs it."

"Hush! speak lower, Jabez :" whispered Nell, laying her finger on her lip, as Herbert moaned, and turned uneasily on his bed. "Eh, but the fit's strong upon him enow."

"God, a mercy! what poor suffering things we are, Nell!" ejaculated honest Jabez, sadly; " and such a young bit thing, too!"

CHAPTER XXXIII.

In a week Herbert was so much recovered as to be able to sit up. It had been a time of unusual quietness in the house, for Nell had drilled her troop of healthy brats so effectually that they never ventured into the house but on tiptoe, nor dared to speak above a whisper when they were in it. It had been a week of dreadful pain and suffering to the poor little fellow,

and sadly worn and wasted was he when Jabez, who, with all his roughness, was the tenderest of nurses, carried him in his arms into the open air for a few minutes.

Herbert cast a languid eye over a group of sturdy brats who, in defiance of their mother's orders, were gambolling in the dirty road. Old Joe was sunning himself on a bench at a little distance, beside another old man, quite as grey and withered as himself, whilst far beyond the boy's gaze stretched the broad, blue sea.

"Isn't it a pretty sight, my little fellow?" cried Jabez, with flashing eyes, as he caught the direction of the boy's gaze; "look at the waves tumbling and tossing in-shore, with the great white horses foaming over them! and then look far out, how calm and still everything is, as if the sea was one immense sheet of glass, and never a breath of wind to stir it. Yonder's an Ingeeman standing out, with all her sails set, for the long voyage that's before her. They say the Ingees lies a six months' voyage off, my lad, and that's a power of a distance, in my opinion."

"I've read about the Indies," said Herbert, feebly, in reply to this outburst. "Once, when I had been very good, my dear papa gave me a book full of pictures of tiger and elephant hunts, and grand temples, and caves, and palaces, and cities in India; and the book said what a beautiful land it is, with palm-trees growing up into the sky, and coral islands lying deep, deep down beneath the green sea-waves. But it is a very hot place," he added, with a weary sigh, "and I don't like the heat, or I would go out there when I get better again."

He felt so light, so very light, in Jabez's arms when he said this, and looked so worn and wasted, that the latter thought he might never get better again. As he looked down upon him again, the moment after, there was so radiant a smile upon the young boy's face that he felt as if he had never beheld so much touching beauty in a human being before.

"Carry me back again, good Jabez," murmured the boy, faintly, as a sickly pallor chased the bright glow away, "for I am very, very ill."

Jabez carried him in, and laid him on his bed again.

"I am very light, am I not, my good Jabez?" said he, with one of his sad smiles, that always cut the honest fellow to the heart, whenever he detected them.

"Rather; but you will soon grow fat and strong again," cried Jabez, stoutly. "Bless you, Nell is such a capital cook that she could feed a skeleton up as big as a prize ox, in no time."

"I will make a good subject for her, then," said Herbert, gently, as he held up a thin, wasted arm against the light. "Has the doctor been here, to-day, Jabez?"