The major was so angry that he could do nothing; and while they were thus confronting each other, Joe Flint staggered into the counting room. Intoxicated as he was, he readily discovered the position of affairs between the belligerents. "Look here--hic--Major Phillips," said he, reeling up to his employer, "I love you--hic--Major Phillips, like a--hic--like a brother, Major Phillips; but if you touch that boy, Major Phillips, I'll--hic--you touch me, Major Phillips. That's all." "Go home, Joe," replied the stable keeper, his attention diverted from Harry to the new combatant. "You are drunk." "I know I'm drunk, Major Phillips. I'm as drunk as a beast; but I ain't--hic--dead drunk. I know what I'm about." "No, you don't. Go home." "Yes, I dzoo. I'm a brute; I'm a hog; I'm a--dzwhat you call it? I'm a villain." Joe tried to straighten himself up, and look at his employer; but he could not, and suddenly bursting into tears, he threw himself heavily into a chair, weeping bitterly in his inebriate paroxysm. He sobbed, and groaned, and talked incoherently. He acted strangely, and Major Phillips's attention was excited. "What is the matter, Joe?" he asked; and his anger towards Harry seemed to have subsided. "I tell you I am a villain, Major Phillips," blubbered Joe. "What do you mean by that?" "Haven't I been on a drunk, and left my family to starve and freeze?" groaned Joe, interlarding his speech with violent ebullitions of weeping. "Wouldn't my poor wife, and my poor children--O my God," and the poor drunkard covered his face with his hands, and sobbed like an infant. "What is the matter? What do you mean, Joe?" asked Major Phillips, who had never seen him in this frame before. "Wouldn't they all have died if Harry hadn't gone and fed 'em, and split up wood to warm 'em?" As he spoke, Joe sprang up, and rushed towards Harry, and in his drunken frenzy attempted to embrace him. "What does this mean, Harry?" said the stable keeper, turning to our hero, who, while Joe was telling his story, had been thinking of something else. "What a fool I was to get mad!" thought he. "What would she say if she had seen me just now? Poor Julia! perhaps she is dead, even now." "My folks would have died if it hadn't been for him," hiccoughed Joe. "Explain it, Harry," added the major. "The lame girl, Katy, came down here after her father early in the evening. She seemed to be in trouble and I thought I would go up and see what the matter was. I found them in rather a bad condition, without any wood or anything to eat. I did what I could for them, and came away," replied Harry. "Give me your hand, Harry!" and the major grasped his hand like a vise. "You are a good fellow," he added, with an oath. "Forgive me, Mr. Phillips, for saying what I did; I was mad," pleaded Harry. "So was I, my boy; but we won't mind that. You are a good fellow, and I like your spunk. So you have really been taking care of Joe's family while he was off on a drunk?"