her arms around her neck, burst into tears. Ella would
gladly have shaken her off, for she felt that her curls were in danger
of being mussed, and she had besides hardly recovered from her pet.
But Mary firmly held her hand, and led her on through the long hall,
into a room which they usually denominated "the best room."

There, upon the table, lay a little stiffened form. The blue eyes were
closed, and the long eyelashes rested upon the marble cheek, and in
the waxen hands, folded so carefully over the other, there was a
single snow-drop. No one knew who placed it there, or whence it came.
Gently Mary laid back the thin muslin covering, saying as she did so,
"Allie is dead. I've got no sister left but you!" and again her arms
closed convulsively about Ella's neck.

"You kind of choke me!" said Ella, trying to get free, and it was not
until Mrs. Campbell, thoroughly ashamed of her want of feeling, took
her hand and placed it on Alice's cold cheek, asking her if she were
not sorry her little sister was dead, that she manifested any emotion
whatever. Then, as if something of her better nature were roused, her
lip trembled for a moment, and she burst into a violent fit of
weeping.

"It is hardly natural that she should feel it as deeply as Mary," said
Mrs. Campbell to Billy Bender, who was present.

He made no reply, but he never forgot that scene; and when years after
he met with Ella on terms of perfect equality,--when he saw her
petted, flattered, and admired, he turned away from the fawning
multitude, remembering only the April morning when she stood by the
dead body of her sister.

During all this time no trace of Sal Furbush had been seen, and at
last a strict search was instituted but to no effect, until Billy, who
chanced to be passing the dark closet under the garret stairs, heard
her whispering to herself, "Yes, little Willie's dead, and Sally's got
_three_ in Heaven now."

Entering the place, he found her crouched in one corner, her hair
hanging down her back, and her eyes flashing with unusual brightness.

"Why, Sally," said he, "what are you here for?"

"To save the credit of the house," was her ready reply. "When the
other Willie died, they chained me in this dungeon, and thinking they
might do so again, I concluded to come here quietly wishing to save
all trouble and confusion, for the utmost decorum should be preserved
in the house of death."

"Poor woman," said Billy kindly, "no one wishes you