! I can
trust this little maid that she will do exactly as I bid her. She is a
very conscientious person--religiously inclined, I should think. At any
rate, she is just the nurse I should choose from all the sisterhood for
your poor little boy--just the firm and gentle attendant he needs now.
Trust me. I know her well."

It is possible that in speaking thus the doctor's first wish was to set
the mind of the mother at rest about leaving her child, but he could say
what he did without doing any violence to his conscience. He really had
admired and wondered at Christie's management of the little Lees during
his frequent visits to their nursery.

"And besides," he added to himself, "the poor little fellow will be
better when away from his mother's unbounded indulgence for a while. It
will be better for all concerned."

So the matter was arranged--not without many misgivings on Mrs Seaton's
part, however. Her directions as to Christie's management of the boy
were so many and so minute that the poor child was in danger of becoming
bewildered among them. To all she could only answer, again and again:

"I will be very careful, ma'am;" or, "I will do my best."

It was well for Mrs Seaton that there was but little time left, or her
heart, and Christie's too, might have failed. At the very last moment
the mother had a mind to change her plans.

"After all," she said, "perhaps it would have been wiser to send him to
his aunt's. Her children are noisy and troublesome, to be sure; but I
should have felt easier about him. Mind, Gertrude, you are to write
every day till your father returns. And, Christie, remember, you are to
obey the doctor's directions in all things. He is to call every day.
And don't let Clement fret him. And, Gertrude, be sure to write."

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

NEW FRIENDS.

The house seemed very quiet after Mrs Seaton went away. For that day
and the next, Christie and her little charge were left to the solitude
of the green room and the garden. Miss Gertrude and Clement had gone to
visit their aunt, and not knowing when they might return, Christie was
beginning to wonder what she should do during the long hours that her
little charge slept or amused himself quietly without her. There were
no books in the green room--at least, there were none she cared for. In
the nursery there were a few story-books for little children--fairy
tales, and rhymes, with pictures of giants and dwarfs and lit