eir years. A quarrel or a hot word is almost unknown in this house,
and why? Carol would hear it, and it would distress her, she is so full
of love and goodness. The boys study with all their might and main.
Why? Partly, at least, because they like to teach Carol, and amuse her
by telling her what they read. When the seamstress comes, she likes to
sew in Miss Carol's room, because there she forgets her own troubles,
which, Heaven knows, are sore enough! And as for me, Donald, I am a
better woman every day for Carol's sake; I have to be her eyes, ears,
feet, hands,--her strength, her hope; and she, my own little child, is
my example!"

"I was wrong, dear heart," said Mr. Bird more cheerfully; "we will try
not to repine, but to rejoice instead, that we have an 'angel of the
house.'"

"And as for her future," Mrs. Bird went on, "I think we need not be
over-anxious. I feel as if she did not belong altogether to us, but that
when she has done what God sent her for, He will take her back to
Himself--and it may not be very long!" Here it was poor Mrs. Bird's turn
to break down, and Mr. Bird's turn to comfort her.

III

THE BIRDS' NEST

Carol herself knew nothing of motherly tears and fatherly anxieties; she
lived on peacefully in the room where she was born.

But you never would have known that room; for Mr. Bird had a great deal
of money, and though he felt sometimes as if he wanted to throw it all
in the sea, since it could not buy a strong body for his little girl,
yet he was glad to make the place she lived in just as beautiful as it
could be.

The room had been extended by the building of a large addition that hung
out over the garden below, and was so filled with windows that it might
have been a conservatory. The ones on the side were thus still nearer
the Church of Our Saviour than they used to be; those in front looked
out on the beautiful harbor, and those in the back commanded a view of
nothing in particular but a narrow alley; nevertheless, they were
pleasantest of all to Carol, for the Ruggles family lived in the alley,
and the nine little, middle-sized, and big Ruggles children were a
source of inexhaustible interest.

The shutters could all be opened and Carol could take a real sun-bath in
this lovely glass house, or they could all be closed when the dear head
ached or the dear eyes were tired. The carpet was of soft gray, with
clusters of green bay and holly leaves. The furniture was of white