n
need of help.

When she left the cottage, she had asked the woman if she should not
send a doctor to her; but the answer was that the best medicine would be
her own return. The poor mother had been constantly prevented from
getting well by trying to work before she was strong enough, and yet
there was so much to be done that it was hard for her to keep her bed.
If she could lie still for one week only, she would be well again.

So Elsli had decided that she could not help going again, and she was
glad to go. It was a real pleasure to her to feel that she could be of
use, that some one really needed her.

The next afternoon Elsli did not wait a moment on the seat by the river.
As soon as the children had scattered to their different amusements she
started down to the lindens, and she did not stop till she reached the
little house among the willows. All four children were standing in the
door-way awaiting her. They cried out with joy when they espied her, and
ran to meet her, and when she took little Lenchen up in her arms, the
child almost choked her in her close embrace. The boys too were so glad
to see her, and pressed so near her side, that she began to feel as if
she were surrounded by a tenderness and love such as she had never
before received; the poor, lonely little girl!

The mother's welcome was warm, and the grandfather raised both arms in
the air and cried out:--

"God be praised! I had begun to think that there was no chance for
to-day!"

He asked her to help him go directly out into the sun; for it was
pleasant and warm outside, but within he sat chilly all day long. It
was no easy task, for the old man was heavy, and leaned upon her so that
she could scarcely stand under his weight, but at last they struggled
out to where the sun shone pleasantly on the water, and gilded the
trunks of the old willows with his beams. Here the old man sat down, and
asked Elsli to sit by him. She did so, and he went on talking.

"Yes," he said, "that is the same old Rhine! How I have always loved it!
But it will soon be all over with me; I shall not be long here to see
it; I must go, and where? But it's foolish to talk this way to you; you
are too young to understand. Your life is just beginning. Are you not
happy, and glad to think that you can stay here by this beautiful water
for a long, long time to come?"

"I don't think of that when I look at the river," said Elsli. "I think
of the beautiful stream that flows