and the clothes are so worn
out that the children can scarcely keep them on; and their mother is
too ill to cook, and when the father comes home he is too tired, and he
has hard work even to keep a house over their heads. If I don't help
them, they will never get through; they will suffer in silence. They are
just like us at home."

Elsli's sobs prevented her from saying any more. The remembrance of her
early sufferings and the thought of her parents' trials came over her
like a flood, and she sobbed as if her heart would break. Clarissa
lifted her head and raised the pillows behind it, so that she could look
out into the clear, star-lit night.

Elsli gradually grew more tranquil, and by and by she looked up into
Clarissa's face and smiled.

"Do you think I shall go to Nora?" she asked. "The old grandfather said
that only good people go to heaven."

"My child" said Clarissa, "our Lord and Saviour shows us the way. He
has opened the door for those who have erred, and shown us that our
Heavenly Father is always ready to forgive and receive those who repent
and turn to him. Don't you remember the parable of the Prodigal Son and
the words of Jesus to the men who were crucified with him? They were not
good, you know."

"Yes, I know," said the child in a tone of relief; and she repeated
softly to herself the hymn which she had said to the old man. The last
couplet was scarcely audible.

"Oh, ope the gates of heaven now,
And bid me enter in!"

The next morning Clarissa went to the other children with the sad news
that Elsli was very, very ill. They could not at first believe it. She
had never complained, and had been only yesterday in the garden with
them, joining in their play; quiet to be sure, but always sympathetic
and trying to please them all. It was a sad day for them. They could not
occupy themselves as usual, but sat about in the house and garden,
weeping in silence, or talking in subdued tones about the sick girl whom
they all loved so dearly.

Fani was, of course, the most unhappy of all. Elsli's goodness to him in
their days of poverty and hardship came clearly to his mind. How she had
silently taken many a punishment and rebuke that were really deserved by
him. He felt keenly that if Elsli did not recover he should never meet
with any one to take her place. He saw now, as he had never seen before,
what his sister had been to him.

To Mrs. Stanhope too the blow was a severe one. She blamed her