“They’ll be back directly, and I promised to have something for them to eat.”

“Then I’ll help you, for our man is coming out all right now, and I feel — if he can have any kind of care — he will live.”

The sky had become overcast with heavy clouds and the wind had risen, blowing cold from the north. David replaced the shutter he had torn off and mended the fire with fuel he found scattered about the yard; while Cassandra swept and set the place in order and the resuscitated patient looked about a room neater and more homelike than he had ever slept in before. Cassandra searched out a few articles with which to prepare a meal — the usual food of the mountain poor — salt pork, and corn-meal mixed with water and salt and baked in