live, they say.'

"This was before they were so particular about carrying them off to
hospital. The house was cleared an' the saloon shut up, but Nan was
allowed to stay because she'd been exposed anyway, an' it was no use to
send her off. He had it the worst way, an' he'd scream an' swear he
wouldn't die, an' strike out at her, though he couldn't see, his face
and eyes bein' all closed up. It didn't last but a week, and then he
died, but Nan hadn't taken off her clothes or hardly slept one instant.
He was stupid at the last, an' when she saw he was gone she fell on the
floor in a faint; an' when she come to the blood poured from her mouth,
an' all they could do was to take her off to the hospital. She didn't
take the smallpox, but it was a good while before she could be let to
see anybody. When they thought it was safe she sent for me, but it was
hard to think it could be the same Nan I'd known. Every breath come with
pain, and she was wasted to a shadow, but she smiled at me an' drew me
down to kiss her. 'You see, I sha'n't be troubled or make trouble much
longer,' she said, 'but oh, if I only could rest!'

"Poor soul! She couldn't breathe lyin' down, nor sleep but a bit at a
time, an' it was awful to have her goin' so, an' she not twenty.

"I knelt down by her. She had a little room to herself, for she had some
money yet, and I prayed till I couldn't speak for crying. 'Nan, Nan!' I
said, 'you're goin' straight to the next world, an' you've got to be
judged. What will you do without a Saviour? Try to think about it.'

"She patted my hand as if I were the one to be quieted. 'Don't bother,'
she said: 'I don't mind, an' you mustn't. If He's as good as you say
He'll see that it's all right. I'm too tired to care: I only want to get
through. There's nothing to live for, an' I'm glad it's 'most over. I
want you to come every day, for it won't be long.'

"'Let me bring Jerry,' I said, but she only laughed. She'd known him at
his hardest, an' couldn't realize he might be different; but after a
week or two she let him come, an' she'd lie an' listen with a sort of
wonder as she watched him. But nothing seemed to take hold of her. She
looked like a flower lyin' there, an' you'd think her only a child, for
they'd cut her hair, and it lay in little rings all over her head; an'
Jerry just cried over her, to think that unless she hearkened she was
lost. She liked to be read to, but you couldn't make her believe,
somehow, that a