Page:Six months in Kansas.djvu/75

Rh thought of it after I came into my cabin, and could not feel easy about the night arrangement for the sick.

Without being at all "clever," according to the English definition of the word, I do not think any person ever had keener instincts than myself. I often account for it on the principle that no creature is made without some peculiar, personal power of safety, or monition of what course to pursue as a means to that end. Be that as it may, certain I am, my work was hastened in the morning so as to be ready early to go the rounds. Before they were completed, a messenger came for Edward to go out five miles, to a cabin where four men were "down" (to use the country expression) with chills and fever. It seemed a clear case of duty to let him go, for a few days at least,—provided he could secure Paine, his old chum, to guard us at night. This was readily promised by Paine; and Edward rolled up his buffalo, jumped into the wagon, and was off. My visit was thus retarded. But soon I was on hand, full of the foreshadowing of more sickness.

Poor Davie, and poor John, indeed. John