“Bless the child!  Look at her!” And the sick woman glanced toward Aggy, who, bearing in mind her mother’s words, was already busying herself in the work of bringing order out of disorder.

“Look at the dear creature!” added Mrs. Elder, a glow of pleasure flushing her countenance, a moment before so pale and sad.

Unconscious of observation, Aggy, with almost a woman’s skill, had placed first the few old chairs that were in the room, against the wall, at regular distances from each other.  Then she cleared the littered floor of chips, pieces of paper, and various articles that had been left about by the untidy girl who was Mrs. Elder’s only attendant, and next straightened the cloth on the table, and arranged the mantel-piece so that its contents no longer presented an unsightly aspect.

“Where is the broom, Mrs. Elder?” inquired the busy little one, coming now to the bedside of the invalid.

“Never mind the broom, dear; Betsy will sweep up the floor when she comes in,” said Mrs. Elder.  “Thank you for a kind, good little girl.  You’ve put a smile on every thing in the room.  What a grand housekeeper you are going to make!”

Aggy’s heart bounded with a new emotion.  Her young cheeks glowed, and her blue eyes sparkled.  If the pleasure she felt lacked any thing of pure delight, a single glance at her mother’s face made all complete.

“When did you hear from your daughter?” asked Mrs. Markland.

There was a change of countenance and a sigh.

“Oh! ma’am, if Lotty were only here, I would be happy, even in sickness and suffering.  It’s very hard to be separated from my child.”

“She is in Charleston?”

“Yes, ma’am,”

“Is her husband doing well?”

“I can’t say that he is.  He isn’t a very thrifty man, though steady enough.”

“Why did they go to Charleston?”

“He thought he would do better there than here; but they haven’t done as well, and Lotty is very unhappy.”

“Do they talk of returning?”

“Yes, ma’am; they’re both sick enough of their new home.  But then it costs a heap of money to move about with a family, and they haven’t saved any thing.  And, more than this, it isn’t just certain that James could get work right away if he came back.  Foolish fellow that he was, not to keep a good situation when he had it!  But it’s the way of the world, Mrs. Markland, this ever seeking, through change, for something better than Heaven awards in the present.”

“Truly spoken, Mrs. Elder.  How few of us possess contentment; how few extract from the present that good with which it is ever supplied!  We read the fable of the dog and the shadow, and smile at the folly of the poor animal; while, though instructed by reason, we cast aside the substance of to-day in our efforts to grasp the shadowy future.  We are always looking for the blessing to come; but when the time of arrival is at hand, what seemed so beautiful in the hazy distance is shorn of its chief attraction, or dwarfed into nothingness through contrast with some greater good looming grandly against the far horizon.”