hours are over. I am always glad to see
your face, but this evening I was longing for you, hoping and praying that
you would come. I am in trouble."

"About what, Mrs. Davis? Nothing serious, I hope; tell me."

"I don't know how serious it is going to be. Johnnie is sick in the next
room, taken yesterday; and about noon to-day Susan had to knock off work
and come home. Hester is the only one left, and you know she is but a baby
to work. I don't like to complain of my lot, God knows, but it seems hard
if we are all to be taken down."

"I hope they will not be sick long. What is the matter with Johnnie?"

"Dear knows! I am sure I don't; he complains of the headache and has fever,
and Susan here seems ailing the same way. She is as stupid as can
be--sleeps all the time. My children have had measles and whooping-cough,
and chicken-pox and scarlet fever, and I can't imagine what they are trying
to catch now. I hear that there is a deal of sickness showing itself in the
Row."

"Have you sent for the doctor?" asked Irene, walking around to the other
side of the bed, and examining Susan's pulse.

"Yes, I sent Hester; but she said he told her he was too busy to come."

"Why did you not apply to some other physician?"

"Because Dr. Brandon has always attended me, and, as I sent for him first,
I didn't know whether any other doctor would like to come. You know some of
them have very curious notions about their dignity."

"And sometimes, while they pause to discuss etiquette, humanity suffers.
Susan, let me see your tongue. Who else is sick in the Row, Mrs. Davis?"

"Three of Tom Brown's children, two of Dick Spencer's, and Lucy Hall, and
Mary Moorhead. Miss Irene, will you be good enough to give me a drink of
water. Hester has gone to try to find some wood, and I can't reach the
pitcher."

"I brought you some jelly; would you like a little now, or shall I put it
away in the closet?"

"Thank you; I will save it for my Johnnie, he is so fond of sweet things;
and, poor child! he sees 'em so seldom nowadays."

"There is enough for you and Johnnie too. Eat this, while I look after him,
and see whether he ought to have any this evening."

She placed a saucer filled with the tempting amber-hued delicacy on the
little pine table beside the bed, and went into the next room. The boy, who
looked about seven or eight years old, lay on a pallet in one corner,
restless and fretful, his cheeks burning, and his large brown eyes
sp