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BLUE MAGIC

knew me to-night, but not Emily. It—oh, it seems cruel to say it, but I think it 's because he's fonder of us than of—any one else."

They had put him in the big bed in his parents' cabin. On one side of it knelt his mother, and on the other sat the doctor, his arms folded. Mrs. Norvell silently gave up her place to Siddereticus, who bent over the poor little figure on the bed.

"Fen!" he said,—and his voice was wonderfully steady, and compelling in its tenderness,—"it is I—even I, Siddereticus."

"Hold—me—" said Fen, almost inaudibly.

Siddereticus slid his arm under the pillow, and laid his cheek beside Fen's hair.

"Make it stop—hurting," whispered Fen. "Oh, do a magic, and—make it stop—hurting!"

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