Page 194 - A Little Bush Maid

"You’ll have to go to bed soon," he said. "Can’t have you knocking yourself
up, you know; and we’ve got to make an early start to-morrow to avoid the

worst heat of the day for the patient. Also, you will take a small tabloid to
make you ’buck up,’ if you know what that means, Norah!" Norah grinned.

"Ah, well, Mr. Stephenson here will make you forget all that undesirable
knowledge before long--lost in a maze of Euclid, and Latin, and Greek, and
trigonometry, and things!"

"T say!" gasped Norah.

"Well, you may," grinned the doctor. "T foresee lively times for you and
your tutor in the paths of learning, young lady. First of all, however, you’ll

have to be under-nurse to our friend the patient, with Mrs. Brown as head.
And that reminds me--someone must sit up to-night."

"That’s my privilege," said Dick Stephenson quickly. And all that night,
after the camp had quieted to sleep, the son sat beside his newly-found

father, watching in the silver moonlight every change that flitted across the
wan old face. The Hermit had not yet recovered consciousness, but under

the doctor’s remedies he had lost the terrible restlessness of delirium and
lay for the most part calmly. Tn heart, as he watched him, Dick was but a
little boy again, loving above all the world the tall "Daddy" who was his

hero--longing with all the little boy’s devotion and all the strength of his
manhood to make up to him for the years he had suffered alone.

But the calm face on the bed never showed sign of recognition. Once or
twice the Hermit muttered, and his boy’s name was on his lips. The pulse

fluttered feebly. The great river flowed very close about his feet.