"We never saw him or Nelly again. It is said the whole party perished,
an' I believe it, for they were far spent, and the road they took, I've
been towld, is worse than the one we took. It was dead winter when we
arrived, and Patrick and me came to live here. We made a good deal at
first by diggin', but we both fell sick o' the ague, and we've been
scarce able to kape us alive till now. But it won't last long. Dear
Patrick is broken down entirely, as ye see, and I haven't strength
a'most to go down to the diggin's for food. I haven't been there for a
month, for it's four miles away, as I dare say ye know. We'll both be
at rest soon."
"Ah! now, don't say that again, avic," cried Larry, smiting his thigh
with energy; "ye'll be nothin' o' the sort, that ye won't; sure yer
brother Pat is slaipin' now like an infant, he is, an' I'll go down
meself to the stores and git ye medicines an' a doctor, an' what not.
Cheer up, now--"
Larry's enthusiastic efforts to console his new friend were interrupted
by the sick man, who awoke at the moment, and whispered the word "food."
His sister rose, and taking up a small tin pan that simmered on the fire
in front of the tent, poured some of its contents into a dish.
"What is it ye give him?" inquired Larry, taking the dish from the
girl's hands and putting it to his lips. He instantly spat out the
mouthful, for it was soup made of rancid pork, without vegetables of any
kind.
"'Tis all I've got left," said the girl. "Even if I was able to go down
for more, he wouldn't let me; but I couldn't, for I've tried more than
once, and near died on the road. Besides, I haven't a grain o' goold in
the tent."
"O morther! Tare an' ages!" cried Larry, staring first at the girl and
then at her brother, while he slapped his thighs and twisted his fingers
together as if he wished to wrench them out of joint.
"Howld on, faix I'll do it. Don't give it him, plaze; howld on, _do_!"
Larry O'Neil turned round as he spoke, seized his cudgel, sprang right
over the bushes in front of the tent, and in two minutes more was seen
far down the ravine, spurning the ground beneath him as if life and
death depended on the race.