"I have been a little weak-minded. I know it. But if it doesn't thunder any more I'll keep up. Ever since I was a child the sound of thunder paralyzed me. Thank God, Mrs. Yocomb is beginning to revive." "I will leave her in your care, and see if I can do anything for Mr. Yocomb. I thus show that I trust you fully." As I passed out I heard a faint voice call, "Mother!" Going to the door of Adah's room I saw that she was conscious, and feebly trying to rise. As I entered she looked at me in utter bewilderment, then shrank with instinctive fear from the presence of a seeming intruder. I saw the impulse of her half-conscious mind, and called Miss Warren, who came at once, and her presence seemed reassuring. "What's the matter?" she asked, with the same thick utterance that I had noted in Mr. Yocomb's voice. It seemed as if the organs of speech were partially paralyzed. "You have been ill, my dear, but now you are much better. The doctor will be here soon," Miss Warren said soothingly. She seemed to comprehend the words imperfectly, and turned her wondering eyes toward me. "Oh, that the doctor would come!" I groaned. "Here you have two on your hands, and Mr. Yocomb is calling." "Who's that?" asked Adah, feebly pointing to me. "You remember Mr. Morton," Miss Warren said quietly, bathing the girl's face with cologne. "You brought him home from meeting this morning." The girl's gaze was so fixed and peculiar that it held me a moment, and gave the odd impression of the strong curiosity of one waking up in a new world. Suddenly she closed her eyes and fell back faint and sick. At that moment, above the sound of the rain, I heard the quick splash of a horse's feet, and hastened down to greet the doctor. In a few hasty words I added such explanation of the catastrophe as Reuben's partial account rendered necessary, and by the time I had finished we were at Mrs. Yocomb's door. Mr. Yocomb seemed sufficiently at rest to be left for a while. "This is Miss Warren," I said. "She will be your invaluable assistant, but you must be careful of her, since she, too, has suffered very severely, and, I fear, is keeping up on the strength of her brave will, mainly." The physician, fortunately, was a good one, and his manner gave us confidence from the start. "I think I understand the affair sufficiently," he said; "and the best thing you can do for my patients, and for Miss Warren also, Mr. Morton, is to have some strong black coffee made as soon as possible. That will now prove an invaluable remedy, I think." "I'll show you where the coffee is," Miss Warren added promptly. "Unfortunately--perhaps fortunately--Mrs. Yocomb let the woman who assisted her go away for the night. Had she been here she might have been another burden." Even though I had but a moment or two in the room, I saw that the doctor was anxious about little Zillah. As Miss Warren waited on me I said earnestly, "What a godsend you are!"