This was not long delayed, as in about half an hour or so a message came for her to go to a house a few squares away, where a whole family had just been taken down with the disorder.

Bidding her two patients farewell, Agnes hastened away to the new scene of duty.

AN UNEXPECTED PATIENT.

The good and beautiful girl, upon arriving at the stricken home, at once set herself to the heavy task she was called on to perform, with cheerful alacrity; but it was the worst case she had yet had.  Indeed, it would have been utterly impossible for her to get through, but for the fact that there was an old negress employed by the family, and who, having had the fever last year, was not afraid of it.

Silver, odd as it may seem, was the name of this negress, and she proved herself to be quite as sterling as her name implied.  She was also quite intelligent, and carried out all of Miss Arnold’s directions to the letter.

Yet, for all this, one of the patients, a little girl of six years, died.  Agnes was exceedingly pained to lose the little darling; but the wonder was that it lived and stood the attack of the fever as long as it did, for it had been already suffering several days before with an acute summer complaint.

The rest of the family all recovered, and Miss Arnold received their most grateful thanks.  Truly they hardly knew what method to take to show her how grateful they really were.  They were pretty well off in worldly matters, but their kind Angel Agnes was twice as wealthy as they, so that neither money nor anything which money could buy was of any use to her.

“I will tell you what you may do to express your gratitude for what little good I have, under the blessing of God, been able to render you.  Help your poorer neighbors immediately around you here.  There are scores and scores of families who are actually starving, as well as sick.  Give them all the assistance you can.  Rich people can take care of themselves, but the poor cannot.”

This was faithfully promised, and, we may add, just as faithfully performed.

During the next ten days Agnes was kept continually busy, night and day, in her arduous and dangerous duties.  But by strict adherence to her original design and method, she kept herself in perfect health and spirits, and in the midst of her labors and anxieties she found time to send daily messages to her mother.

On the succeeding Monday, while nursing a poor woman in the northern part of the city, a note was brought to her by the dead-wagon man—­the same genius with whom Agnes had had the encounter.

“Missus Agonyess,” said he, trying to pronounce her name correctly, as he remembered the correction—­an effort which betrayed him into a double error—­“I wuz asked to fetch this here letter to you.  It wuz giv to me by a black feller who’s a nussin’ in the little hospital.  A young man guv it to him last night, and promised to give him his gold watch ef he’d find you out and git it to yer.”