said. David's heart was lightened, too, but he
watched the look on his mother's face, and noticed that she hardly spoke
a word--not even to check Jem, when the laughter of the children and
Letty grew too frequent, and a little noisy, as they sat together before
the lamp was lighted.

"It is all right, I hope," said he, a little doubtfully. "It would be
all right for papa, whichever way it were to end--and for mamma, too,--
in one sense--and for all of us," added he, with a vague idea of the
propriety of submission to God's will under any circumstances. "But
papa is not worse--I think he is not worse, and it will be all right by
and by when summer comes again." But he still watched his mother's
face, and waited anxiously for her word to confirm his hope.

It _was_ all right, because nothing which is God's will can be otherwise
to those who put their trust in Him. But it was not all right in the
sense that David was determined to hope. Though he found them sitting
so calmly there when he came home that night, and though the evening
passed so peacefully away, with the children singing and reading as
usual, and the father and mother taking interest in it all, they had
experienced a great shock while the boys were away.

Gradually, but very plainly, the doctor had for the first time spoken of
danger. Absolute rest for the next three months could alone avert it.
The evidence of disease was not very decided, but the utter prostration
of the whole system, was, in a sense, worse than positive disease. To
be attacked with serious illness now, or even to be over-fatigued might
be fatal to him.

It was not Dr Gore who spoke in this way, but a friend of his who was
visiting him, and whom he had brought to see his patient. He was a
friend of the minister, too, and deeply interested in his case, and so
spoke plainly. Though Dr Gore regretted the abruptness of his friend's
communication, and would fain have softened it for their sakes, he could
not dissent from it. But both spoke of ultimate recovery provided three
months of rest--absolute rest, as far as public duty was concerned, were
secured. Or it would be better still, if, for the three trying months
that were before him, he could go away to a milder climate, or even if
he could get any decided change, provided he could have rest with it.

The husband and wife listened in silence, at the first moment not
without a feeling of dismay. To go away for a change was utt