“Oh!” sobbed Rosie, “mamma didn’t speak to me; she didn’t look at me; she doesn’t love me any more; nor my papa either.”

“Yes, they do, little pet,” Elsie said, leaving Violet to embrace the little sister; “and sister Elsie loves you dearly, dearly.  Harold and Herbert too; as well as our big oldest brother,” smiling up at Eddie through her tears, as he stood by her side.

He bent down to kiss her sweet lips.

“Lily?” he said in a choking voice.

With a great effort Elsie controlled her emotion, and answered low and tremulously, “She is almost done with pain.  She is very happy—­no doubt, no fear, only gladness that soon she will be

    ’Safe in the arms of Jesus,
     Safe on his gentle breast’”

Eddie turned away with a broken sob.  Vi uttered a low cry of anguish; and Rosie and the boys broke into a wail of sorrow.

Till that moment they had not given up hope that the dear one might even yet be restored.

In the sick-room the golden head lay on a snow white pillow, the blue eyes were closed, and the breath came pantingly from the pale, parted lips.

“Cousin Arthur” had his finger on the slender wrist, counting its pulsations, while father and grandfather stood looking on in anxious solicitude, and the mother bent over her fading flower, asking in tender whispered accents, “are you in pain, my darling?”

“No, mamma, only so tired; so tired!”

Only the mother’s quick ear, placed close to the pale lips, could catch the low-breathed words.

The doctor administered a cordial, then a little nourishment was given, and the child fell asleep.

The mother sat watching her, lost to all else in the world.  Arthur came to her side with a whispered word about her own need of rest and refreshment after her fatiguing journey.

“How long?” she asked in the same low tone, glancing first at the white face on the pillow, then at him.

“Some days, I hope; and she is likely now to sleep for hours.  Let me take your place.”

Elsie bent over the child, listening for a moment to her breathing, then accepting his offer, followed her husband and father from the room.

Rosie, waiting and watching in the hall without, sprang to her mother’s embrace with a low, joyful cry, “Mamma, mamma! oh, you’ve been gone so long, so long!  I thought you’d never come back.”

“Mamma is very glad to be with you again,” Elsie said, holding her close for a moment, then resigning her to her father, she sought the others, all near at hand, and waiting eagerly for a sight of her loved face, a word from her gentle lips.

They were all longing for one of the old confidential talks, Violet, perhaps, more than the others; but it could not be now, the mother could scarcely allow herself time for a little rest, ere she must return to her station by the side of the sick bed.

But Molly was not forgotten or neglected.  Elsie went to her with kind inquiries, loving cheering words and a message from Dick, whom she had seen a few days before.