fortnight, and it's a month now since I heard from her, and
she has sent me a book every Christmas until this last one."

"She has been very sick, Uncle Ike," said Ezekiel. "She was taken down
about the middle of December and was under the doctor's care for three
weeks."

"Is she better?" asked Uncle Ike eagerly.

"Yes, she is up again," said Ezekiel, "but she is very weak; but that
ain't the worst of it," he added.

"Why, what's the matter?" asked Uncle Ike. "Why didn't her friends let
us know?"

"She wouldn't let them," said Ezekiel. "If it hadn't been for what the
eye doctor told her she wouldn't have telegraphed to me what she did."

"Well, what's the matter with her?" cried Uncle Ike almost fiercely.

"Well, Uncle Ike," said Ezekiel, and the tears stood in his eyes as he
said it, "our Allie is almost blind, but the eye doctor says she will
get better, but it will take a very long time. She has had to give up
her job, and I am going to Boston again to-morrow to bring her home to
the old house."

"What's the matter with her eyes?" asked Uncle Ike.

"He called them cataracts," said Ezekiel, "or something like that."

Uncle Ike sat down in his armchair and thought for a minute or two.

"Yes," he said, "I know what they are; I have read all about them, and I
know people who have had them. One was a schoolmate of mine. He was a
mighty smart fellow and I felt sorry for him and used to help him out in
his studies. I heard he had his eyes operated on and recovered his
sight."

"Well, the doctor she has," said Ezekiel, "is agin operations. He says
they can be cured without them. She drops something in her eyes and
blows something in them, and then the tears come, and then she sits
quietly with her hands folded, thinking, I suppose, till the time comes
to use the medicine again."

"What can I do to help you?" asked Uncle Ike. "You know I always loved
Alice even better than I did my own children, because she is more
lovable, I suppose. Now, 'Zeke, if you want any money for doctor's bills
or anything else, I am ready to do everything in the world I can for
Alice. Did she ask after me, 'Zeke?"

"Almost the first thing she said was, 'How is dear old Uncle Ike?' and
then she said how glad she would be to get back to Eastborough, where
she could have you to talk to. 'I am lonesome now,' she said, 'I cannot
write nor read, and the time passes so slowly with no one to talk to.'"

"But the poor dear girl can't walk d