illness, in addition to the wages of those who were thus
prevented from earning anything. The "hospital" was supplied from the
kitchen of the "great house," and both Eunice and her young sister found
full occupation in the preparation of dainties and food for the sick.

The interest in the five sick girls was intense, and when one--a poor,
sickly little thing--died, every one felt as though death had come very
close, and many were compelled to listen to the voice which said:--

"Prepare to meet thy God."

CHAPTER XIV.

GOOD FOR EVIL.

"Bertie Sanderson has not been in the mill for a week," said Tessa to
Katie, as the two friends walked home together one hot afternoon. "One
of the rag-room girls said so. I wonder if she has the fever!"

"That's not likely; the girls are all getting better," said her
companion.

"Yes; but she's been absent for more than a week," persisted Tessa.
"Let's go round that way and inquire."

But Katie, somehow, shrank from this. While she knew nothing with
absolute certainty, she could not help feeling that Bertie was in some
way connected with the general avoidance of herself by the girls of the
Sunday-school class, and the evident suspicion with which both Miss
Eunice and Miss Etta regarded her. What her former companion could have
said or done, she had no idea; but the sense of an undefined something
had made her of late keep as far as possible from Bertie. She was about
to say with her usual impulsiveness:--

"No; I hate Bertie! Don't let's go near her," when she remembered all
her purposes of doing Tessa good and setting her a Christian example. Is
it Christian to cherish a dislike of another because one has reason to
suppose that other has done one an injury? Katie's enlightened
conscience knew it was not. It was not like him who said:--

"Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, and pray for them which
despitefully use you and persecute you;" and who, by acting in strict
accordance with his own teachings, "left us an example that we should
follow in his steps."

For a few moments the little girl said nothing as she walked silently by
the side of her companion; then, having during those silent moments sent
up an earnest prayer that the hateful feelings might be taken away from
her heart, that so she might become more like Christ, she answered by
turning her steps in the other direction.

The two girls found, as Tessa had suggested, that Ber