"I can't think it was intended we should take the words literally; but they certainly were meant that we should be forgiving,--that we should love our enemies so heartily as to lead them from their evil ways. The man who beat you so cruelly will never be brought into a better life by harsh words. Now, I am going to put some arnica on these bruises; it will hurt, but you must try to bear the pain manfully." "Don't be afraid of me, aunt Dorcas. You couldn't do anything that would make me yip." The little woman treated Joe's wounds with such simple remedies as she had near at hand, and then proceeded to bandage his head, until but little more than his eyes and mouth could be seen, striving, meanwhile, to show him how much better the world would be for his having lived in it, if he would govern himself strictly by the Golden Rule. During all the while she was putting the many bandages in place, Joe was saying to himself that now was come the time when he should make that confession he had decided upon, and, although aunt Dorcas had said so much concerning the blessedness of forgiving those who have done us an injury, he did not believe she would so far carry her precepts into practice as to be willing to shelter one who appeared to be as great a criminal as himself. "I believe, Joseph, I have done all that is possible to-night," the little woman finally said, as she fastened in place the last bandage. "You are not to get up in the morning until after I have made certain you are in no danger of a fever. Now, go to your room, and if you think George may disturb you, I'll put him in the spare chamber." "Wait a minute, aunt Dorcas; I want to tell you something," and Joe laid his hand on the little woman's arm to prevent her from rising. "You never knew why Plums an' I left New York to come out here where there isn't a chance to earn a living." "I understood from something you said, Joseph, that there was a reason for your leaving home suddenly; but I can't believe, my boy, you have done anything wrong." "An' I haven't, aunt Dorcas; as true as I live, I haven't, though everybody, even Plums, thinks I've been cuttin' a terrible swath! Of course, when that advertisement come out, I had to run away, else they'd carried me to jail--" "To jail?" aunt Dorcas repeated, in horror. "What advertisement do you mean, Joseph?" "The one that was in the paper 'bout payin' anybody who'd tell where I was." "But who wanted to know where you were?" "The lawyers, of course,--the fellers that advertised." "Why did they want to find you?" aunt Dorcas asked, in perplexity. "That's what knocks me silly, 'cause I don't know a thing about it, any more'n you do." "Did you say the advertisement knocked you silly, Joseph?" and the little woman now looked thoroughly bewildered. "Course it did, an' it would have paralysed 'most anybody that didn't know what they'd been about."