f her innocent enjoyment,
by a fever, which from the first was ushered in with symptoms the most
fearful.

All the bustle of preparation ceased--the presents were forgotten or lay
about unfinished, as if no one now had a heart to put their hand to any
thing; while up in her little crib lay the beloved one, tossing and
burning with restless fever, and without power to recognize any of the
loved faces that bent over her.

The doctor came twice a day, with a heavy step, and a face in which
anxious care was too plainly written; and while he was there each member
of the circle hung with anxious, imploring faces about him, as if to
entreat him to save their darling; but still the deadly disease held on
its relentless course, in spite of all that could be done.

"I thought myself prepared to meet God's will in any form it might
come," said Winthrop to me; "but this one thing I had forgotten. It
never entered into my head that my little Ally could die."

The evening before New Year's, the deadly disease seemed to be
progressing more rapidly than ever; and when the doctor came for his
evening call, he found all the family gathered in mournful stillness
around the little crib.

"I suppose," said the father, with an effort to speak calmly, "that this
may be her last night with us."

The doctor made no answer, and the whole circle of brothers and sisters
broke out into bitter weeping.

"It is just possible that she may live till to-morrow," said the doctor.

"To-morrow--her birthday!" said the mother. "O Ally, Ally!"

Wearily passed the watches of that night. Each brother and sister had
kissed the pale little cheek, to bid farewell, and gone to their rooms,
to sob themselves to sleep; and the father and mother and doctor alone
watched around the bed. O, what a watch is that which despairing love
keeps, waiting for death! Poor Rover, the companion of Ally's gayer
hours, resolutely refused to be excluded from the sick chamber.
Stretched under the little crib, he watched with unsleeping eyes every
motion of the attendants, and as often as they rose to administer
medicine, or change the pillow, or bathe the head, he would rise also,
and look anxiously over the side of the crib, as if he understood all
that was passing.

About an hour past midnight, the child began to change; her moans became
fainter and fainter, her restless movements ceased, and a deep and heavy
sleep settled upon her.

The parents looked wistfully on th