ood stead during those long months of suffering. Sarah
was the housekeeper, and she fulfilled the many and complicated duties
of her office with an alacrity and success that might well surprise them
all. She planned and arranged with the skill of a woman of experience,
and carried out her plans with an energy and patience that seldom
flagged. Indeed, she seemed to find positive pleasure in the little
make-shifts which their straitened means made every day more necessary,
and boasted of her wonderful powers in a way so merry and triumphant
that she cheered the rest when they needed it most.

Annie's task was harder than her sister's. The constant attendance upon
the sick-beds of her father and her aunt was very trying to a girl
accustomed to daily exercise in the open air; and there were days when
her voice was not so cheerful nor so often heard among them as it might
have been. But she was strong and patient, and grew daily more
efficient as a nurse; and though she did not know it, she was getting
just the discipline that she needed to check some faults and to
strengthen her character at the points where it needed strengthening
most.

As for Christie, she was neither nurse nor housekeeper; or rather, I
ought to say, she was both by turns. It was still her duty to attend to
little items here and there, which seem little when done, but the
neglect of which would soon throw a household into confusion. It was
"Christie, come here," and "Christie, go there," and "Christie, do this
and that," from morning till night, till she was too weary even to sleep
when night came. Her sisters did not mean to be exacting. Indeed, they
meant to be very kind and forbearing, and praised and petted her till
she was ready to forget her weariness, as well as their unmindfulness of
it. She did try very hard to be gentle, and patient, and useful, and
almost always she succeeded; and the homecoming of Effie on Saturday
night was the one event to which all her thoughts turned through the
week, whether she was successful or not.

And, indeed, Christie was not the only one of them whose chief pleasure
was a glimpse of Effie's cheerful face. It did them all good to have
her among them for a day or two every week. All looked to her for help
and counsel; and she seldom failed or disappointed any one. Whatever
sad thoughts of the present or misgivings for the future she might have,
she kept them, during her visits at home, quite to hersel