Had Doctor Prescott at any minute surprised him, he would have faced him again, with no sign of weakening; but he lay there, curled up among the brakes as in a green nest, with his face against the earth, and her breath of aromatic moisture in his nostrils, and sobbed and wept until he fell asleep.
He had slept an hour and a half, when he wakened suddenly, with a clear "Hello!" in his ears.

He opened his eyes and looked up, dazed, into Squire Eben Merritt's great blond face.
"Hullo!" said Squire Eben again.

"I thought it was a woodchuck, and instead of that it's a boy.

What are you doing here, sir ?" Jerome raised himself falteringly.

He felt weak, and the confused misery of readjusting the load of grief under which one has fallen asleep was upon him.