supposed to outweigh any amount of unlicensed brains. Try me."

"No. I am not willing. Go back up-stairs, and stay there," said the
warden.

"Why may I not assist in nursing?"

"In the first place you are not fit to mix with those poor creatures,
in yonder; their oaths would curdle your blood; and in the second, you
are not strong, and would be sure to take the disease at once."

"I am perfectly well; my lungs are now as healthy as yours, and I am
not afraid of diphtheria. You detailed nurses, who refused to serve; I
volunteer; have you any right to reject me?"

"Yes, the right to protect and save your life, which is worth twenty of
those already in danger," replied Mr. Singleton, pausing in his task of
filling capsules with quinine.

"Who made you a judge of the value of souls? My life belongs first to
God, who gave it, next to myself; and if I choose to jeopardize it, in
work among my suffering comrades in disgrace, you must not usurp the
authority to prevent me."

"Has it become so intolerable that you desire to commit suicide, under
the specious plea of philanthropic martyrdom?" said Doctor Moffat,
whose keen black eyes scanned her closely, from beneath shaggy gray
brows.

"I think I may safely say, no such selfish motive underlies my
resolution. My heart is full of pity, and of dread for some women here,
who admit their guilt, yet have sought no pardon from the Maker their
sins insult. Sick souls cry out to me louder than dying bodies; and who
dare deny me the privilege of ministering to both? The parable of the
sparrows is no fable to me; and if, while trying to comfort my unhappy
associates here, God calls me out of this dark stony vineyard, His will
alone overrules all; and I can meet His face in peace. We say: 'Lord
what wilt Thou have us to do?' and when the answer comes, pointing us
to perilous and loathsome labors, will He forget if we shut our eyes,
and turn away, coveting the sunny fields into which He sent others to
toil? Let me go to my work."

During almost eighteen months, both men had studied her character as
manifested in the trying phases of prison existence, finding no flaw;
to-day they looked up reverently at the graceful form in its homespun
uniform, at the calm, colorless face, wearing its crown of meekness,
with an inalienable, proud air of cold repose.

"To keep you here is about as sacrilegious as it would have been to
thrust St. Catherine among the chain-gang in the galleys," mut