good lady declared.

"Oh, my back, and oh, my bones!" she groaned, getting up quickly
from her rocking chair by the window, where she had been knitting.
"For the good land of mercy! what is this?"

All three of the friends began to tell her together. But the little
old woman with the bent back and rheumatic limbs understood one
thing, if she made nothing else out of the general gabble. The
strange boy had been in the water, and his need was urgent.

"Bring him right in here, Tommy," she commanded, hobbling into Mr.
Potter's bedroom, which was the nearest to the kitchen, and thereby
the warmest. "I don't know what Jabez will say, but that child's got
to git a-twixt blankets right away. It's a mercy if he ain't got his
death."

They drew off the stranger's outer clothing, and then Aunt Alviry
left Tom to help him further disrobe and roll up in the blankets on
Mr. Potter's bed. Meantime the old woman filled a stone water-bottle
with boiling water, to put at his feet, and made a great bowl of
"composition" for him to drink down as soon as it was cool enough for
him to swallow.

Ruth wrung out the boy's wet garments and hung them to dry around
the stove, where they began immediately to steam. As she had noticed
before, the stranger's clothing was well worn. He had no overcoat--
only a thick jacket. All his clothing was of the cheapest quality.

Suddenly Helen exclaimed: "What's that you've dropped out of his