"That's easy done," said Jarvis. "I guess I've got a pair that'll answer. Only don't dround yourself." "I'll take care of that," she replied, laughing. "But who else wants you, Jarvis?" "Your brother told me to come up, and--oh, there he is." Mr. Mellen had heard voices, and came through the hall out on the veranda. "Good morning, Jarvis!" he said, in his quiet way. "Good morning, sir! You don't look very well, I think," observed the keen-sighted old man. Elsie glanced at her brother; he was very pale, and his heavy eyes told of a long, sleepless night. Mr. Mellen frowned slightly; it displeased him to have his personal appearance commented upon, and wounded his pride to know that he had not sufficient strength to keep back every outward sign of the anxiety and trouble he was enduring. "Be you well, now?" continued the pertinacious old man, who had a habit of asking questions and expressing his opinions with the utmost freedom to people of every degree. "Perfectly well," replied Mr. Mellen. "You have come up about that tree, have you?" "Wal, yes," said Jarvis. "I hadn't much to do this morning, so I thought I'd just come round and find out what's the matter. You hain't found no gardener yet?" "No; I have sent to town for one. You have sufficient knowledge to keep the greenhouse in order until one is found." "Just as you say, sir; I'll do my best." The gardener at Piney Cove had seen fit to leave the place a few days before without the slightest warning, with the true, reckless independence of the Hibernian race. When a dilemma of this kind arose, the people of the neighborhood were in the habit of sending for old Benson, who seemed, in some mysterious way, to have acquired a smattering of knowledge about everything that could make him generally useful. Elsie did not feel particularly interested in the subject of conversation, and was moving off in search of other amusement, when she heard old Jarvis say: "It's the big cypress yonder, in the thicket, ain't it?" She stopped short in the hall, and stood leaning against the door with her back towards them. "Yes," Mr. Mellen answered. "I am afraid it is dying. I want you to dig about the roots and see if you can find out where the trouble lies." "Loosening the earth a bit'll maybe do a world of good," said Jarvis; "I've seen it 'liven a tree right up." "We will try, at all events," observed Mr. Mellen. "First you may take those plants under the library window into the greenhouse; it is too late for them to be left out." He walked to the side of the house to point out the flowers he wished to have removed. Elsie darted through the hall and up the stairs in breathless haste. She paused at the door of her sister's room and tried the knob, but the bolt was drawn. "Elizabeth! Elizabeth!" she called out in a frightened whisper, utterly incapable of speaking aloud. "Open the door--for heaven's sake, open the door!"