which the wide lawn was
covered. In the upper corridor of the west wing, grouped about the
window-seat with their embroidery or knitting, the young nurses were
talking together in low tones during the hour of the patients'
siestas. The two graduates, dark-eyed efficient girls, with skilled
delicate fingers taking precise stitches in the needlework before
them, were in full uniform, but the younger girls clustered about
them, beginners for the most part, but a few months in training, were
dressed in the simple blue print, and little white caps and aprons, of
the probationary period.

The atmosphere was very quiet and peaceful. A light breeze blew in at
the window and stirred a straying lock or two that escaped the
starched band of a confining cap. Outside the stinging whistle of the
insect world was interrupted now and then by the cough of a passing
motor. From the doors opening on the corridor an occasional restless
moan indicated the inability of some sufferer to take his dose of
oblivion according to schedule. Presently a bell tinkled a summons to
the patient in the first room on the right--a gentle little old lady
who had just had her appendix removed.

"Will you take that, Miss Hamlin?" the nurse in charge of the case
asked the tallest and fairest of the young assistants.

"Certainly." Eleanor, demure in cap and kerchief as the most ravishing
of young Priscillas, rose obediently at the request. "May I read to
her a little if she wants me to?"

"Yes, if you keep the door closed. I think most of the others are
sleeping."

The little old lady who had just had her appendix out, smiled weakly
up at Eleanor.

"I hoped 'twould be you," she said, "and then after I'd rung I lay in
fear and trembling lest one o' them young flipperti-gibbets should
come, and get me all worked up while she was trying to shift me. I
want to be turned the least little mite on my left side."

"That's better, isn't it?" Eleanor asked, as she made the adjustment.

"I dunno whether that's better, or whether it just seems better to me,
because 'twas you that fixed me," the little old lady said. "You
certainly have got a soothin' and comfortin' way with you."

"I used to take care of my grandmother years ago, and the more
hospital work I do, the more it comes back to me,--and the better I
remember the things that she liked to have done for her."

"There's nobody like your own kith and kin," the little old lady
sighed. "There's none left of