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His hand, blindly groping after sustenance, encountered the lanced up at me "Damned if I’ve ever seen that,the curls back off estions for dealing with vicious pigs?"

He waved absently at me with the ree the pig" He took his eyes off the book long enough to glance over the table at the es?"

"There are, but I’uest at the corncrib" I added two slices of bread to the s, and took up the bottle of infusion I had left steeping overnight The brew of goldenrod, bee-balreen, and sht help It couldn’t hurt On impulse, I picked up the tied-feather aiven me; perhaps it would reassure the sick uest was a stranger; a Tuscarora froe He had co party from Anna Ooka, on the trail of bear

We had offered food and drink--several of the hunters were Ian’s friends--but in the course of the lassy-eyed into his cup Close exa fro disease in these days

He had insisted on leaving with his coht hi and delirious

He was plainly--and alarious I had made him a comfortable bed in the newly built and so-far eo and wash in the creek, a proceeding which they plainly found senseless, but in which they hu their co on his side, curled under his blanket He didn’t turn to look at h he must have heard ht; no need for s were clearly audible at six paces

"Co down by him He didn’t answer; it was unnecessary, in any case I didn’t need anything beyond the rattling wheeze to diagnose pneumonia, and the look of him merely confirmed it--eyes sunken and dull, the flesh of his face fallen away, consumed to the bone by the fierce blaze of fever

I tried to persuade him to eat--he desperately needed nourishment--but he would not even bother to turn away his face The water bottle by his side was eht away, thinking he ht s the infusion from sheer thirst

He did take a few reenish-black liquid to run out of the corners of hisnone of it; he didn’t even acknowledgesky

His thin body sagged with despair; plainly he thought hiers I felt a gnawing anxiety that he

He would take water, at least He drank thirstily, draining the bottle, and I went to the streaain When I came back, I drew the amulet froht I saw a flicker of surprise behind the half-closed lids--nothing so strong as to be called hope, but he did at least take conscious notice of me for the first time

Seized by inspiration, I sank slowly down onto my knees I had no notion at all of the proper cereh to know that while the power of suggestion was no substitute for antibiotics, it was certainly better than nothing

I held up the raven’s-feather amulet, turnedI could res’s receipt for the treatment of syphilis, rendered in Latin

I poured a small bit of lavender oil into my hand, dipped the feather in it, and anointed his te "Blow the Man Down," in a low, sinister voice Itthe feather’saway in its "Quoil," waiting for a squirrel to run down my throat

I picked up his hand, laid the oil-drabbled aers round it Then I took the jar of rease and paintedcareful to rub it well in with the balls of my thumbs The reek cleared my sinuses; I could only hope it would help the patient’s thick congestion

I co the bottle of infusion with "In no it tomildly hypnotized, he opened his mouth and obediently drank the rest

I drew the blanket up around his shoulders, put the food I had brought down beside his of hope and fraudulence

I walked slowly beside the strea useful It was too early in the year for her the plant, the better; several seasons of fighting off insects ensured a higher concentration of the active principles in their roots and stems

Also, with many plants, it was the flower, fruit, or seed that yielded a useful substance, and while I’d spotted clu the path, those had long since gone to seed I marked the locations carefully in