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"Oh, Mr. McTurg; do you think so?"

"Ye-e-s, sir. He’s all right. The fever’s left him. Brace up, old man. We need ye yit awhile. " Then all was silent agam.

The well mouth cleared away its mist again, and he saw more clearly. Part of the time he knew he was in bed staring at the ceiling. Part of the time the well mouth remained closed in with clouds.

Gaunt old women put spoons of delicious broth to his lips, and their toothless mouths had kindly lines about them. He heard their high voices sounding faintly.

"Now, Mis’ Bloom, jest let Mis’ Folsom an’ me attend to things out here. We’ll get supper for the boys, an’ you jest go an’ lay down. We’ll take care of him. Don’t worry. Bell’s a good hand with sick. "

Then the light came again, and he heard a robin singing, and a catbird squalled softly, pitifully. He could see the ceiling again. He lay on his back, with his hands on his breast. He felt as if he had been dead. He seemed to feel his body as if it were an alien thing.

"How are you, sir?" called the laughing, thrillingly hearty voice of William McTurg.

He tried to turn his head, but it wouldn’t move. He tried to speak, but his dry throat made no noise.

The big man bent over him. "Want ‘o change place a little?"

He closed his eyes in answer.

A giant arm ran deftly under his shoulders and turned him as if he were an infant, and a new part of the good old world burst on his sight. The sunshine streamed in the windows through a waving screen of lilac leaves and fell upon the carpet in a priceless flood of radiance.

There sat William McTurg smiling at him. He had no coat on and no hat, and his bushy thick hair rose up from his forehead like thick marsh grass. He looked to be the embodiment of sunshine and health. Sun and air were in his brown face, and the perfect health of a fine animal was in his huge limbs. He looked at Robert with a smile that brought a strange feeling into his throat. It made him try to speak; at last he whispered.

The great figure bent closer: "What is it?"

"Thank you. "

William laughed a low chuckle. "Don’t bother about thanks. Would you like some water?"

A tall figure joined William, awkwardiy.

"Hello, Evan!"

"How is he, hm?"

"He’s awake today. "

"That’s good. Anything I can do?"

"No, I guess not. An he needs is somethin’ to eat. "

"I jest brought a chicken up, an’ some jell an’ things the women sent. I’ll stay with him till twelve, then Folsom will come in. "

Thereafter he lay hearing the robins laugh and the orioles whistle, and then the frogs and katydids at night. These men with greasy vests and unkempt beards came in every day. They bathed him, and helped him to and from the bed. They helped to dress him and move him to the window, where he could look out on the blessed green of the grass.

O God, it was so beautiful! It was a lover’s joy only to live, to look into these radiant vistas again. A catbird was singing in the currant hedge. A robin was hopping across the lawn. The voices of the children sounded soft and jocund across the road. And the surshine–"Beloved Christ, Thy sunshine falling upon my feet!" His soul ached with the joy of it, and when his wife came in she found him sobbing like a child.

They seemed never to weary in his service. They lifted him about and talked to him in loud and hearty voices which roused him like fresh winds from free spaces.