Page:From the West to the West.djvu/152

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"Captain Ranger is making you a pair of crutches, Mr. Burns. You'll soon be out again on your well foot, if you obey orders. Where's mamma? '*

"In the shadow of the wagon, yonder."

Mrs. Benson was resting in the shade, indulging in a silent reverie. "Are all the teachings of my life to be overthrown?" she said, as she thrust a note into her pocket and buried her face in her hands. "Can it be true that Daphne was right and I was wrong? What will people say? Daphne has good principles, but she's as unsentimental as a Mandan squaw. She has no more romance in her make-up than black Susannah. Yet," and a fluttering hope welled up in her heart, "she's a true and faithful daughter. I would to Heaven that all the people in the world were as good."

She produced her treasured note again, and read it stealthily.

"Yes, yes! it can be managed, and none of the curious will ever be the wiser," she said, after due reflection. " It is indeed fortunate that he's been compelled by the law of entail to take his mother's name. Nobody will know him in Oregon."

Mrs. McAlpin found Scotty at camping time with a voracious appetite and a temper like a caged bear.

"Where have you kept yourself through all this blistering afternoon? "he asked, munching his food heartily.

"I can't stay with all my patients all the time, Mr. Burns, especially as so many of them are quadrupeds, with the hoof-ail."

"I suppose, then, that I am to be classed as a biped, with the leg-ail."

"Exactly."

"Ouch! oh!" he exclaimed with a grimace, as the knitting bones gave a sudden twinge, reminding him that they were awake and on duty. "These infernal bandages are loose again, I hope."

"Your bandages are doing nicely, sir. The Captain