er fresh beauty was forever lost.

"Hard days for all of us; I took my share of trouble with the rest,
though I only suffered from the strain to my back. Nurse Benson
straightened me out and kept me in use, so I saw much of pain and
patience in that great house, because the little gray shawl which I
fastened covered a tender heart, and on that motherly bosom many aching
heads found rest, many weary creatures breathed their last, and more
than one unhappy soul learned to submit.

"Among these last was poor Cora, for it was very hard to give up beauty,
health, and the life she loved, so soon. Yet I do not think she ever
regretted the sacrifice when she saw the grateful child well and safe,
for little Sally was her best comforter, and through the long weeks she
lay there half blind and suffering, the daily visit of the little one
cheered her more than anything else. The poor mother was lost in the
great fire, and Cora adopted the orphan as her own, and surely she had a
right to what she had so dearly bought.

"They went away together at last, one quite well and strong again, the
other a sad wreck, but a better woman for the trial, I think, and she
carried comfort with her. Poor little Sally led her, a faithful guide, a
tender nurse, a devoted daughter to her all her life."

Here the pin paused, out of breath, and Miss Ellen shook a bright drop
off the lace that lay in her lap, as she said in a tone of real
interest,--

"What happened next? How long did you stay in the hospital?"

"I stayed a year, for Nurse used me one day to pin up a print at the
foot of a poor man's bed, and he took such comfort in it they let it
hang till he died. A lovely picture of a person who held out his arms to
all the suffering and oppressed, and they gathered about him to be
comforted and saved. The forlorn soul had led a wicked life, and now lay
dying a long and painful death, but something in that divine face taught
him to hope for pardon, and when no eye but mine saw him in the lonely
nights he wept, and prayed, and struggled to repent. I think he was
forgiven, for when at last he lay dead a smile was on his lips that
never had been there before. Then the print was taken down, and I was
used to pin up a bundle of red flannel by one of the women, and for
months I lay in a dark chest, meditating on the lessons I had already
learned.

"Suddenly I was taken out, and when a queer round pin-ball of the
flannel had been made by a nice old la