Lochiel continued to chat with Madame Dumais till the latter heard her husband's voice at the barn. She ran to tell him that there was a stranger in the house with news from Mr. Archie. Dumais was preparing to pitch off his load, but he threw down the fork and rushed into the house. It was by this time too dark for him to make out the stranger's face. "You are indeed welcome," said he, "coming with news from one so dear to us." "You are--Sergeant Dumais?" inquired Archie. "You are Mr. Archie!" cried Dumais, clasping him in his arms. "Do you think I could forget the voice that cried to me 'Courage!' when I was hanging on the brink of the abyss--the voice I heard so often in my sickness?" Toward the end of the evening Archie said: "My dear Dumais, I am come to ask a great favor." "A favor!" exclaimed Dumais. "Could I, a poor farmer, be so fortunate as to do you a favor? It would be the happiest day of my life." "Well, Dumais, it depends upon you to restore me to health. Though I may not look it, I am sick, more sick than you could imagine." "Indeed," said Dumais, "you are pale, and sadder than of old. Good heaven! What is the matter?" "Have you ever heard of a malady to which the English are very subject, and which they call the spleen, or blue devils?" "No," said Dumais. "I have known several of your English who, if I may say it without offense, seemed to have the devil in them; but I had imagined that these devils were of a darker hue." Archie began to laugh. "What we, my dear Dumais, call the blue devils is known among you Canadians as '_peine d'esprit_.'" "I understand now," said Dumais, "but what astonishes me is that a man like you, with everything heart could wish, should be amusing himself with blue devils." "My dear Dumais," replied Archie, "I might answer that every one in the world has his sorrows, however fortunate he may seem; but it is enough now to say that the malady is upon me, and that I count upon you to help me to a cure." "Command me, Mr. Archie; for I am at your service day and night." "I have tried everything," continued Archie. "I have tried study, I have tried literary work. I am better in the day-time, but my nights are usually sleepless, and when I do sleep, I wake up as miserable as ever. I have concluded that nothing but hard manual labor can cure me. After toiling all day, I imagine that I shall win such a slumber as has long been denied me." "Very true," said Dumais. "When a man has labored all day with his hands, I defy him to suffer from sleeplessness at night. But how shall I have the pleasure of helping you?"