uld have driven her home, but had not been
able to find her; which greatly troubled the little ten-years-old girl,
because, she said, the sick lady could not have any milk that evening.

Whilst Petrea, led by her little guardian-angels, wandered through the
wood, we will make a little flight, and relate what had occurred there a
few days before.

A few days before, a travelling-car drove along this road, in which sate
a lady and a little girl. As they came within sight of a small cottage,
which with its blossoming potato-field looked friendly in the wood, the
lady said to the peasant boy who drove, "I cannot go farther! Stop! I
must rest!" She dismounted, and crawled with his help to the cottage,
and besought the old woman, whom she found there, for a glass of water,
and permission to rest upon the bed for a moment. The voice which prayed
for this was almost inaudible, and the countenance deathly pale. The
little girl sobbed and cried bitterly. Scarcely had the poor invalid
laid herself upon the humble and hardly clean bed, when she fell into a
deep stupor, from which she did not revive for three hours.

On her return to consciousness she found that the peasant had taken her
things into the cottage; taken his horse out of the car, and left her.
The invalid made several ineffectual attempts during three days to leave
the bed, but scarcely had she taken a few steps when she sunk back upon
it; her lips trembled, and bitter tears flowed over her pale cheeks. The
fourth day she lay quite still; but in the afternoon besought the old
woman to procure her an honest and safe person, who, for a suitable sum,
would conduct the little girl to a place which would be made known to
him by a letter that would be given with her. The old woman proposed her
brother's son as a good man, and one to be relied on for this purpose,
and promised in compliance with the prayer of the sick woman to seek him
out that same day and speak with him; but as he lived at a considerable
distance she feared that she should only be able to return late in the
evening. After she was gone, the invalid took paper and a lead pencil,
and with a weak and trembling hand wrote as follows:

"I cannot arrive--I feel it! I sink before I reach the haven. Oh,
foster-parents, good sisters, have mercy on my little one, my
child, who knocks at your door, and will deliver to you my humble,
my last prayer! Give to her a warm home, when I am resting in