few, Nancy decided to read them.

As her eyes followed the lines of the first letter her breath was drawn in sharply. She hastily glanced at the signature, José Beltrán. This letter she flung aside and eagerly glanced through the remaining ones. At last she started to her feet with a wild cry, staggered to the door, still grasping the letter, and found her way gropingly to her own room. "Not that! Not that!" she moaned, and sank in a heap on the floor.

There Parthy found her. "Po' little lamb! Po li'l lamb," she murmured as she lifted her in her arms and laid her on the bed. "De good Lord done stricken huh fo' sho. He done lay his han' heavy on huh." She loosened the girl's clothing, then sent a call below for Iry. "Miss Nancy done give out at las'," she said. "You bleedged to fetch de doctah, Iry. She done come to de een' o' huh rope."

CHAPTER III

 Creeping Back

Creeping Back

For days Nancy lay babbling in delirium, her head, shorn of its golden locks, tossing from side to side. When he was first called in, Dr. Plummer shook his head dubiously. "Who is with you here, Aunt Parthy?" he asked.

"'Tain't nobody, doctah, jes' at de present 'ceptin' Iry. Miss Ober she been an' stay a while, an' Miss Greenway she stay a while, dat jes' at fust, when Miss Nancy lef' by huhse'f. Den she up an' say she don' want nobody but jes' Iry an' me; she don' want no strangers meddlin' wif her ma's things. She don' say dat to dem, min' yuh, but she say so to me, an she jes' sweet an' perlite to 'em but she let 'em all know she radder be lef' alone."

"She must have a trained nurse at once," decided the doctor.

"I kin nuss huh," declared Parthy, looking anxiously from the bed to the doctor. "Dese yer train' nusses a lot o' trouble, dey tells me. Dey say yuh bleedged wait on 'em han' an' foot, an' dey so high an' mighty yuh kaint please 'em nohow. Dat what dey tells me. I kin nuss huh."

"No, Aunt Parthy, I'm afraid you can't," decided the doctor.

"What de reason I kaint?" persisted Parthy. "Ain't I nuss huh when she have de measles an' de whookin' cough, an de chicken pox? Ain't I? What Miss Jinny know 'bout nussin'. Law, doctah, I teks ker o' Miss Jinny an' Miss Nancy bofe."

"I know that Parthy, and you did well, but this is quite a different case and 

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