than usual; nor did the fact of finding her fast asleep on the floor when dinner was ready, cause any thing further than a thought that she had tired herself out with play.  At night she refused her supper, and then it was observed for the first time that her eyes were heavy, her hands hot, and that she was affected with a general languor.  Her mother undressed her and put her to bed, and the child sank off immediately into a heavy sleep.  For some time Mrs. Parker stood bending over her with a feeling of unusual tenderness for the child.  She also felt concern, but not arising from any definite cause.  The fear of extreme sickness and impending death she had not yet known.  That was one of the lessons she had still to learn.

In the morning little Rachel awoke with a severe chill, accompanied by vomiting.  A raging fever succeeded to this.  The parents became alarmed, and Mr. Parker started off on horseback, for a physician, distant about seven miles.  It was noon when the doctor arrived.  He did not say much in answer to the anxious questions of the mother, but administered some medicine and promised to call on the next day.  At his second visit he found nothing favorable in the symptoms of his little patient.  Her fever was higher than on the day before.  There had been a short intermission after midnight, which lasted until morning, when it had returned again greatly exacerbated.

Nine days did the fever last without the abatement of a single symptom, but rather a steady increase of all.  The little sufferer had not only the violence of a dangerous disease to bear, but there was added to this a system of medical treatment that of itself, where no disease existed, would have made the child extremely ill.  In the first place large doses of mercury were given, followed by other nauseous and poisonous drugs; then copious bleeding was resorted to; and then the entire breast of the child was covered with a blister that was kept on until the whole surface of the skin was ready to peel off.  Afterward the head was shaved and blistered.  During all this time, medicines that the poor sufferer’s stomach refused to take were forced down her throat, almost hourly!  If there had been any hope of escape from the fever, this treatment would have made death certain.

At the close of the ninth day the physician informed the parents that he could do no more for their child.  When Mrs. Parker received this intelligence, there was little change in her external appearance, except that her pale, anxious face grew slightly paler.  She tried to say in her heart, as she endeavored to lift her spirit upward—­“Thy will be done.”  But she failed in the pious effort.  It was too much to take from her this darling child; this companion of her loneliness; this blossom so gently unfolding and loading the desert air with soul-refreshing sweetness.  It was too much—­she bowed her spirit in meek endurance, but she could not say—­“Thy will be done.”