said, "I am
sorry to find you so low, Michael, but God's will be done, perchance He
means to deliver you from the pinchings of a bitter season. It is but
little I can do for you," she continued, as the grateful man smoothed
down the warm garment, and thanked her with tremulous lips; "my children
made it for you, and this little one I have taken with me that she may
learn to be the more thoughtful of those who have a scanty supply of
the good things of this life, and the more thankful for the blessings of
abundance and health bestowed upon her."

"Ah! yes, miss," said the old man, running his lank arms into the nice
garment, and wrapping it closely about him; "'Blessed is he that
considereth the poor, the Lord will remember him in the time of
trouble.' Many's the time I shall think of the little hands that sewed
on this for the sick old man, and I'll pray, miss, that you may never
know what it is to suffer want nor sorrow in this weary world, and that
you may all be sure to go to a better when you die."

Madame La Blanche read a chapter to him from her pocket-Bible, and with
a few words of advice and comfort to the woman, and a picture-book for
the children, she went from the unwholesome room up a crazy staircase to
one a shade better, because kept with some degree of cleanliness. A
young man arose and gave chairs to the lady and the child, and his
mother welcomed them with a joy which the poor never feign toward a true
friend. "How is John's cough?" said Madame La Blanche. "It seems to me
he has failed since I saw him last; but perhaps it is because I have not
been here for some time that he looks thinner than usual to me."

"Oh! no, ma'am, 'tisn't that," said the mother; "poor Johnny's going
fast. He coughs so o' nights, it fairly makes me ache for him. It puts
me so in mind of Aby, I can't hardly bear it."

"I wish he was like Aby," said the lady; "Aby was a perfect example of
faith and patience, and he died as a Christian should die, with a firm
confidence in Him whom he had trusted. John knows that he can not live
long," continued she, "and I hope he is not afraid to die. He has the
same heavenly Father to go to for support in these last hours that Aby
had."

"Aby, was a good boy," said the mother; whose heart seemed constantly to
revert to her dead son. "He'd a been twenty years old next month if he'd
a lived, and John won't be till March; but I don't expect he'll live to
see that time, John won't live to be t