Had you not better remain here?
and I will call you the moment she wakes." Mr.Dinsmore acquiesced with a deep sigh, and she went back to her post.
Hour after hour they sat there--Mrs.Travilla, Adelaide, the doctor, and poor old Chloe--silent and still as statues, watching that quiet slumber, straining their ears to catch the faint sound of the gentle breathing--a sound so low that ever and anon their hearts thrilled with the sudden fear that it had ceased forever; and one or another, rising noiselessly, would bend over the little form in speechless alarm, until again they caught the low, fitful sound.
The first faint streak of dawn was beginning in the eastern sky when the doctor, who had been bending over her for several minutes, suddenly laid his finger on her pulse for an instant; then turned to his fellow-watchers with a look that there was no mistaking.
There was weeping and wailing then in that room, where death-like stillness had reigned so long.
"Precious, precious child! dear lamb safely gathered into the Saviour's fold," said Mrs.Travilla in quivering tones, as she gently laid her hand upon the closed eyes, and straightened the limbs as tenderly as though it had been a living, breathing form.
"Oh, Elsie! Elsie! dear, _dear_ little Elsie!" cried Adelaide, flinging herself upon the bed, and pressing her lips to the cold cheek.

"I have only just learned to know your value, and now you are taken from me.
Oh! Elsie, darling, precious one; oh! that I had sooner learned your worth! that I had done more to make your short life happy!" Chloe was sobbing at the foot of the bed, "Oh! my child! my child! Oh! now dis ole heart will break for sure!" while the kind-hearted physician stood wiping his eyes and sighing deeply.
"Her poor father!" exclaimed Mrs.Travilla at length.
"Yes, yes, I will go to him," said Adelaide quickly.

"I promised to call him the moment she waked, and _now_--oh, _now_, I must tell him she will never wake again." "No!" replied Mrs.Travilla, "rather tell him that she has waked in heaven, and is even now singing the song of the redeemed." Adelaide turned to Elsie's writing-desk, and taking from it the packet which the child had directed to be given to her father as soon as she was gone, she carried it to him.
Her low knock was instantly followed by the opening of the door, for he had been awaiting her coming in torturing suspense.
She could not look at him, but hastily thrusting the packet into his hand, turned weeping away.
He well understood the meaning of her silence and her tears, and with a groan of anguish that Adelaide never could forget, he shut and locked himself in again; while she hurried to her room to indulge her grief in solitude, leaving Mrs.Travilla and Chloe to attend to the last sad offices of love to the dear remains of the little departed one.
The news had quickly spread through the house, and sobs and bitter weeping were heard in every part of it; for Elsie had been dearly loved by all.
Chloe was assisting Mrs.Travilla.
Suddenly the lady paused in her work, saying, in an agitated tone, "Quick! quick! Aunt Chloe, throw open that shutter wide.

I thought I felt a little warmth about the heart, and--yes! yes! I was not mistaken; there _is_ a slight quivering of the eyelid.

Go, Chloe! call the doctor! she may live yet!" The doctor was only in the room below, and in a moment was at the bedside, doing all that could be done to fan into a flame that little spark of life.
And they were successful.