nto the house with a face and
manner fit for her mission.

When they reached it, all was so very still inside that they hesitated
to knock; and while they paused, the woman who had undertaken the office
of nurse, and who had seen the sleigh arrive, softly opened the door and
admitted them. She pointed to the bed to show them that her patient was
asleep; and they sat down to wait for her waking. The house contained
but one room, with a small lean-to which served the purpose of a back
kitchen, and made it possible for the other apartment to have that look
of almost dainty cleanliness and order which the visitors noticed. No
attempt had ever been made to hide the logs, of which the walls were
built. A line of plaster between each kept out the wind, and gave a
curious striped appearance to the inside. The floor was of boards,
unplaned, but white as snow, and partly covered by a rag carpet. In the
middle of the room stood the stove, and a small table near it. An
old-fashioned chest of drawers of polished oak, a dresser of pine wood
and some rush-seated chairs had their places against the walls; but in
the further corner stood the chief piece of furniture, and the one which
drew the attention of the visitors with the most powerful attraction. It
was a large clumsy four-post bedstead, hung with blue and white homespun
curtains, and covered with a gay patchwork quilt. The curtains on both
sides were drawn back, and the face and figure of the sleeper were in
full view. She lay as if under the influence of a narcotic, so still
that her breathing could scarcely be distinguished. Two or three days of
intense suffering had given her the blanched shrunken look which
generally comes from long illness; her face, comely and bright in
health, was sunk and pallid, with black marks below the closed eyes; one
hand stretched over the covers, held all through her sleep that of a
little girl, her eldest child, who was half kneeling on a chair, half
lying across the bed, with her head resting on the pillow. At the foot
of the bed stood a wooden cradle--the covering disarranged and partly
fallen on the floor, while the poor little baby, wrapped in an old
blanket, lay in the nurse's arms, and now and then feebly cried, or
rather moaned, as if it were almost too weak to make its complaint
heard. A boy of about six sat in a low seat silently busy with a knife
and a piece of wood; and a younger girl, tired of the sadness and
constraint around, had c