The feelings of Henry softened under the warmth of true sympathy expressed in the countenance and tone of Doctor R--, and still looking him steadily in the face, essayed, but in vain, to answer the question. "Are you sick, my boy?" asked the doctor, with real and increasing concern for the poor child. "My feet hurt me so that I can hardly walk," replied Henry, whose tongue at last obeyed his efforts to speak. "And what ails your feet?" asked Doctor R--. "They've been frosted, sir." "Frosted, indeed! poor child! Well, what have you done for them?" "Nothing--only I greased them sometimes at night; and to-day my master made me stand in the snow." "The cruel wretch!" muttered Doctor R--between his teeth. "But can't you walk up as far as the drug store at the corner, and let me see your feet?" continued the doctor. "Yes, sir" replied the child, though he felt that to take another step was almost impossible. "You'll come right up, will you," urged the doctor. "Yes, sir," returned Henry, in a low voice. "Then I'll wait for you. But come along as quickly as you can;" and so saying, the doctor drove off. But he could not help glancing back, after he had gone on about the distance of half a square, for his heart misgave him for not having taken the little fellow into his carriage. He soon caught a glimpse of him on the sidewalk, slowly and laboriously endeavoring to work his way along, but evidently with extreme suffering. He at once gave directions to the driver to turn back; and taking Henry into the carriage, hurried on to the office. The child, when lifted in, sank back upon the seat, pale and exhausted. Doctor R--asked him no question; and when the carriage stopped, directed the driver to carry him in. He then, with his own hands, carefully removed his shoes and stockings. "My poor, poor child!" said he in pity and astonishment, on beholding the condition of Henry's feet. The harsh remedy prescribed by Sharp, if the subsequent treatment had been tender and judicious, might have been salutary; but, after it, to confine the boy's feet in hard, tight new shoes, and to send him out upon the street, was to induce a high state of inflammation, and, in the advanced state of the chilblains, to endanger mortification. Several of the large ulcerous