rs. Hamilton and Lizzie bustling about completing the arrangements
for his comfort.

"And now I must say good-night, my little soldier," Dr. Bell said,
taking Jack's hand as he spoke. "I shall come to see your mother again
in the morning, and I have an idea that you and I are going to be great
friends. By the way, how long is it that you have been laid up like
this?"

"Ever since I was a baby," said Jack. "My nurse let me fall, and it hurt
my back."

The doctor said nothing, but looked interested, and when he followed
Mrs. Hamilton out of the room a few moments later he asked her how long
she had known the Randall family.

"I never spoke to them until last week," said Mrs. Hamilton, and in a
few words she told the story of Winifred's Thank Offering. The doctor
looked considerably surprised.

"Do you mean to tell me that they are almost total strangers to you, and
yet that you are willing to take all this trouble for them?"

Mrs. Hamilton smiled.

"People learn to help each other where I have lived," she said simply;
"and besides, I am so happy myself now that I think I feel a little as
Winifred does, and should like to make a Thank Offering too."

"I wish there were more people in the world like you and Winifred," said
the doctor heartily. "I am sure it would be a better place than it is if
there were."

* * * * *

An hour later Jack was lying in a soft bed in the little room opening
out of Winifred's. Mrs. Hamilton had undressed him almost as tenderly as
his mother could have done; had heard him say his prayers, and when at
last she had bent down to give him a good-night kiss, Jack's warm
little heart had overflowed, and he had suddenly thrown his arms around
her neck.

"I love you," he whispered softly; "oh, I do love you very much."

But when Mrs. Hamilton had turned down the gas and gone away, and Jack
found himself alone in this strange room, away from his mother and
Betty, he began to feel very lonely. There was no one to see the tears
now, and he let them have their own way at last. He tried to cry very
softly, so as not to disturb Winifred in the next room, but in spite of
all his efforts the choking sobs would come. Suddenly the door creaked
slightly, there was a patter of bare feet on the carpet, and a sweet
little voice whispered close at his side:

"Are you asleep, Jack?"

"No," said Jack, speaking in a rather muffled voice, for he had been
trying to stifle h