of the house.
Accordingly, John got the horse ready, and took them to Mrs.
Goodriche's. Poor Lucy and Henry! How bitterly they cried when they
went out of the gate, thinking that perhaps they might never see their
dear Emily any more! It was a terrible trial to poor Mr. and Mrs.
Fairchild. They had no comfort but in praying and watching by poor
Emily's bed. And all this grief Emily brought upon her friends by her
own naughtiness.

Emily was exceedingly ill for nine days, and everyone feared that if
the fever continued a few days longer she must die; when, by the mercy
of God, it suddenly left her, and she fell asleep and continued
sleeping for many hours.

When she awoke, she was very weak, but her fever was gone. She kissed
her parents, and wanted to tell them of the naughty things she had
done, which had been the cause of the illness, but they would not allow
her to speak.

From that day she got better, and at the end of another week was so
well that she was able to sit up and tell Mrs. Fairchild all the
history of her stealing the damsons, and of the sad way in which she
had got the fever.

"Oh, mamma," said Emily, "what a naughty girl have I been! What trouble
have I given to you, and to papa, and to the doctor, and to Betty! I
thought that God would take no notice of my sin. I thought He did not
see when I was stealing in the dark. But I was much mistaken. His eye
was upon me all the time. And yet how good, how very good, He has been
to me! When I was ill, I might have died. And oh, mamma! mamma! how
unhappy you would have been then!"

Emily's Recovery, and the Old Story of Mrs. Howard

[Illustration: "What sound is that I hear?" said Emily]

After Emily's fever was gone, she got rapidly better every day. Her
kind mother never left her, but sat by her bed and talked to her, and
provided everything which was likely to do her good.

When she was well enough, Mr. Fairchild borrowed Farmer Jones's covered
cart for two days; and he set out, with Mrs. Fairchild and Emily, to
fetch Henry and Lucy from Mrs. Goodriche's. It was a lovely morning at
the finest season of the year. The little birds were singing in the
hedges, and the grass and leaves of the trees shone with the dew. When
John drove the cart out of the garden-gate and down the lane, "Oh,"
said Emily, "how sweet the honeysuckles and the wild roses smell in the
hedges! There, mamma, are some young lambs playing in the fields by
their mothers; an