There was a bed in this room too, and upon it lay the emaciated
form of a woman; asleep, as the girl first thought--dead, as she
afterwards quickly discovered. By her side there nestled a little
child, hardly more than an infant, wailing pitifully with that
plaintive, persistent cry which had attracted her attention at the
outset. Three children, varying in age from four to eight, sat
huddled on the floor in a corner, their tear-stained faces all
turned in wondering expectancy upon the newcomer. Stretched upon
the floor beside the bed was another child, so still that Gertrude
felt from the first that it, too, was dead, and when she lifted up
the little form, she saw the dreaded death tokens upon the waxen
skin.

With a prayer in her heart for grace and strength and guidance,
Gertrude laid the dead child beside its dead mother--for she saw
that the woman was cold and stiff in death; and then she gathered
the living children round her, and taking the infant in her arms,
she led them all down into the lower room, and quickly kindled the
fire that was laid ready in the grate.

She found nothing of any sort in the house, and the children were
crying for food; but the watchman quickly provided what was
needful, being, perhaps, a little ashamed of the condition in which
this household had been found.

Gertrude tended and fed and comforted the little ones, her heart
overflowing with sympathy. They clung about her and fondled her as
children will do those who have come to them in their hour of dire
necessity; and as their hunger became appeased, and they grew
confident of the kindness of their new friend, they told their
pathetic tale with the unconscious graphic force of childhood.

There had been a large household only a few days before. Father,
mother, two grownup sons, and one or two daughters--evidently by a
former marriage. The big brothers had gone away--probably to act as
bearers or watchmen--and the little ones knew nothing of them. One
of the sisters had been in service, but came home suddenly,
complaining of illness, sat down in a chair, and died almost before
they realized she was ill. They had kept that death a secret, had
obtained a certificate of some other ailment than the distemper,
and for a week all had gone on quietly, when suddenly three became
ill together.

Numbers of houses were shut up all round them. Theirs was reported
and closed. For a few days there had been hope. Then the father
sickened,