Caleb’s face glowed and his heart gave a quick bound as he listened to Captain Joe’s praise of the girl wife that was all his own. His rough hand pressed Betty’s shoulder the closer. He had always known that the first great sorrow or anxiety that came into her life would develop all her nature and make a woman of her. Now the men about him would see the strong womanly qualities which had attracted him. “Lemme take hold now, Betty,” said Caleb, still whispering, and stooping over her again. “Ye’re nigh beat out, little woman.” He slipped his arm around her slender waist as if to lift her from the chair. Betty caught his fingers and loosened his hand from its hold. “I’m all right, Caleb. You go home. I’ll be ’long in a little while to get supper.” Caleb looked at her curiously. Her tone of voice was new to him. She had never loosened his arm before, not when she was tired and sick. She had always crept into his lap, and put her pretty white arms around his neck, and tucked her head down on his big beard. “What’s the matter, little one?” he asked anxiously. “Maybe it’s hungry ye be?” “Yes, I guess I’m hungry, Caleb,” said Betty wearily. “I’ll go out, Betty, an’ git ye some soup or somethin’. I’ll be back right away, little woman.” He tiptoed past the cot, putting on his cap as he went. Two of the men followed him with their eyes and smiled. One looked significantly at Lacey and then toward the retreating figure, and shook his head in a knowing way. Betty had not answered Caleb. She did not even turn her head to follow his movements. She saw only the bruised, pale face before her as she listened to the heavy breathing of the sufferer. She would have dropped from her chair with fatigue and exhaustion but for some new spirit within her which seemed to hold her up, and to keep the fan still in her hand. When Sanford, after escorting Mrs. Leroy to her home, returned to the improvised hospital, he found the lanterns lighted, and learned that the doctor had dressed the men’s wounds, and had reported everybody on the mend, especially Lacey; at Betty’s urgent request he had made a careful examination of the young rigger’s wounds, and had pronounced him positively out of danger. Only then had she left her post and gone to her own cottage with Caleb. Captain Joe had followed Aunty Bell home for a few hours’ rest, and all the watchers had been changed.