years with you, for you have been a
good daughter. Death looks bright, for it is the portal of the temple
eternal in the heavens, where is joy unspeakable. I am too weak to talk
more, Katy; you may read me a chapter from the New Testament."

The devoted daughter obeyed this request, and she had scarcely finished
the chapter before the girls came for their candy. She was unwilling to
leave her mother alone even for a minute; so she sent one of them over
to request the attendance of Mrs. Howard, and the good woman took her
place by the side of the sufferer.

Katy, scarcely conscious what she was doing--for her heart was with her
mother,--supplied each girl with her stock of candy, and received the
money for it.

"You need not come to-morrow," she said to them, as they were departing.

"Not come!" exclaimed several. "What shall we do for candy?"

"We cannot make any now; my mother is very sick."

"I get my living by selling candy," said one of them. "I shan't have
anything to pay my board if I can't sell candy."

"Poor Mary! I am sorry for you."

This girl was an orphan whose mother had recently died, and she had
taken up the business of selling candy, which enabled her to pay fifty
cents a week for her board, at the house of a poor widow. Katy knew her
history, and felt very sad as she thought of her being deprived of the
means of support.

"I don't know what I shall do," sighed Mary.

"I have to take care of my mother now, and shall not have time to make
candy," said Katy.

"Do you mean to give up for good?" asked one of them.

"I don't know."

This question suggested some painful reflections to Katy. If they
stopped making candy, she and her mother, as well as orphan Mary, would
be deprived of the means of support. She trembled as she thought of the
future, even when she looked forward only a few weeks. There was not
more than ten dollars in the house, for they had but a short time
before paid for their winter's coal, and at considerable expense
largely replenished their wardrobes. The rent would be due in a week,
and it would require more than half they had to pay it.

Katy was appalled as she thought of the low state of their purse, and
dreaded lest some fearful calamity might again overtake them. It was
plain to her that she could not give up her business, even for a week,
without the danger of being again reduced to actual want. She therefore
reversed her decision, and told the girls they might com