"Aunt Chloe, you may tell Miss Lora that we are ready to receive her now." Lora came in quite gay and full of spirits; but when she caught sight of Elsie, lying so pale and languid in her father's arms, she had hard work to keep from bursting into tears, and could scarcely command her voice to speak.
"Dear Lora, I am so glad to see you," said the little girl, holding out her small, thin hand.
Lora took it and kissed it, saying, in a tremulous tone, "How ill you look!" Elsie held up her face, and Lora stooped and kissed her lips; then bursting into tears and sobs, she ran out of the room.
"Oh, Adelaide!" she cried, rushing into her sister's room, "how she is changed! I should never have known her! Oh! do you think she can ever get well ?" "If you had seen her two or three weeks ago, you would be quite encouraged by her appearance now," replied her sister.

"The doctor considers her out of danger now, though he says she must have careful nursing; and that I assure you she gets from her father.

He seems to feel that he can never do enough for her, and won't let me share the labor at all, although I would often be very glad to do it." "He _ought_ to do all he can for her! he would be a _brute_ if he didn't, for it was all his doing, her being so ill!" exclaimed Lora indignantly.

"No, no; I ought not to say that," she added, correcting herself immediately, "for we were _all_ unkind to her; I as well as the rest.

Oh, Adelaide! what a bitter thought that was to me when I heard she was dying! I never realized before how lovely, and how very different from all the rest of us she was." "Yes, poor darling! she has had a hard life amongst us," replied Adelaide, sighing, while the tears rose to her eyes.