But now she spoke, not with a gasp, but in that shrill, unnatural falsetto so characteristic of hysteria; that voice--half yell--that makes every nerve of the listener jangle with the discord.

"Think, oh-h-h Samuel! why won't you think what a wife I've been to you?
Here I've drudged and scrubbed and scrubbed and drudged all these years like a faithful and industrious wife, never neglecting my duty.

And now--oh-h-h-h--now to be left alone in my--" Here she ceased to breathe again for a while.

"In my last hours to die, to die! to die with, out--without--Oh-h-h!" What Mrs.Anderson was left to die without she never stated.

Mr.Anderson had beckoned to Jonas when he came in, and that worthy had gone off in a leisurely trot to get the "steam-doctor." [Illustration: "CORN-SWEATS AND CALAMUS."] Dr.Ketchup had been a blacksmith, but bard work disagreed with his constitution.