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 here awhile. I prefer it to listening to talk in which I have no particular interest. Tulip will like mine and baby's company while I rock him to sleep, I know."

The door was closed, and the young lumberman went at once to usher in his guest. It proved to be Augustus Reid. His dress and person bore marks of toil and travel; his face was pale and anxious; his eyes red, and roaming fitfully around him.

"I am afraid that you have been ill, or encountered severe hardship since I saw you last," said the contractor, offering his guest a chair near the stove. "It is not long since my wife was wondering what had become of you, as, when you last left us, we expected to hear from you in a day or two from that time. It has been more than a week since then."

"No longer than that?" asked the young man, dreamily, as he passed his hand across his brow; "I could believe that it had been months, instead;