lse. For that would be the very best way to find out if it were
worth while to do anything for _him_. So as they walked away together,
he said to little Diamond, "Nanny must leave the hospital soon, Diamond.
They cannot keep her as long as they would like. They cannot keep her
till she is quite strong. There are always so many sick children they
want to take in and make better. The question is what will she do when
they send her out again?"

"That is just what I can't tell," said Diamond, "though I've been
thinking it over and over. Her crossing was taken long ago. I couldn't
bear to see Nanny fighting for it, especially with the poor lame boy who
has taken it. Besides she has no better right to it than he has. Nobody
gave it to her. She just took it and now he has taken it."

"She would get sick again, anyway," said Mr. Raymond, "if she went to
sweeping again right away in the wet. If somebody could only teach her
something to do it would be better. Perhaps if she could be taught to be
nice and clean and to speak only gentle words----"

"Mother could teach her that!" interrupted Diamond.

"And to dress babies and feed them and take care of them," Mr. Raymond
went on, "she might get a place as nurse maid somewhere. People would
give her money for that."

"Why, I'll ask mother!" cried Diamond. "She could learn to dress our
baby, you know, with me to show her how!"

"But you will have to give her food then. And your father, not being
strong, has enough to do already without that."

"Still there am I!" said Diamond. "I'll help him out with it. When he
gets tired of driving, up I get. And I could drive more if Nanny was at
home to help mother."

"Now I wonder," said Mr. Raymond, "if you couldn't do better with two
horses. I am going away for a few months and I am willing to let your
father have my horse while I am gone. He is nearly as old as your
Diamond. I don't want to part with him and yet I don't want him to be
idle. Nobody ought to be idle, not even a horse. Still I do not want him
to be worked hard. Will you tell your father what I say and see if he
wants to take charge of him?"

"Yes, I will," said Diamond. "And he will come and see you about it."

So when Diamond went home, he told his father all about it. But when his
father went to see about it, he found that he must agree to work the
horse only six hours a day. Then too he must take Nanny from the
hospital and feed her, and teach her to be useful and