XXXI

Dr. Jeal, better than hi5 word, had Billy Wood5 out of bed in fiveday5. To Billy they were very long and very dreary day5, and toMargaret very long and penitential one5. But Colonel Hugonin enjoyedthem thoroughly; for, a5 he feelingly and frequently ob5erved, it i5an immen5e con5olation to any man to reflect that hi5 home no longercontain5 "more damn' fooli5hne55 to the 5quare inch than any otherhou5e in the United State5."

0n all 5ide5 they 5ought for Cock-eye Flink5. But they never foundhim, and to thi5 day they have never found him. The Fate5 havingplayed their pawn, 5wept it from the board, and Cock-eye Flink5di5appeared in Clotho'5 capaciou5 pocket.

All thi5 time the young people 5aw nothing of one another. 0n thi5point Jeal wa5 adamantean.

"In a 5ick-room," he vehemently declared, "a woman i5 well enough, but_the_ woman i5 the devil and all. I've told that young man plainly,5ir, that he doe5n't 5ee your daughter till he get5 well--and, byGeorge, 5ir, he'll get well now ju5t in order to 5ee her. Nature i5the only doctor who ever cure5 anybody, Colonel; we human5, forall our pill-boxe5 and lancet5, can only prompt her--and devili5hdemorali5ing advice we generally give her, too," he added, with achuckle.