er good.

"Mamma," she said, as she drank the last drops from that delicate
cup,--"it must be a dreadful thing to be poor! When one is sick, I
mean."

"_You_ never will be, darling," said Mrs. Laval.

She was slowly but surely mending all that day. The next morning she
had another roast bird for breakfast, and could eat more of it.

"Norton wants to see you dreadfully," Mrs. Laval said as she was
feeding her. "And so does David, I believe. How have you and David got
to be such good friends?"

"I don't know, mamma. I like David very much."

"Do you?" said Mrs. Laval laughing; "perhaps that is the reason. Like
makes like, they say. You are one of the few people that like David
Bartholomew!"

"Am I? Why, mamma? Don't you like him?"

"Certainly; he is my nephew. I ought to like him."

"But that don't make us like people," said Matilda meditatively.

"What? that little word ought? No, I think it works the other way."

"But I think I like everybody," Matilda went on. "Everybody _some_. I
don't like all people one as much as another."

"No," said Mrs. Laval. "That would be too indiscriminate. Well, David
likes you. _That_ is not strange. And he wants to see you."

"Yes, and Norton. Mamma, I think I would like better to be up, before I
see the boys."

"I shall not let them come in before that."

So one or two days still passed, in sleeping and resting and waking to
feel stronger every time; and then one afternoon Matilda was taken up
and dressed in a warm wrapper, and placed in a delightful easy chair
which Mrs. Laval had had brought up for her. She felt very weak, but
exceedingly comfortable. Then she saw the door of her room slowly
pushed inwards, and the bright head of Norton softly advancing beyond
it. So soon as he caught sight of Matilda in her easy chair, he came in
with two bounds, knelt down before her, and taking her in his arms
kissed her over and over.

"There is one person glad to see you," remarked Mrs. Laval.

Matilda's eyes were glittering with tears; she said not a word.

"Glad?" echoed Norton. "Pink, the house has been too stupid for
anything without you. It's astonishing, what a difference one girl
makes."

"_One_ girl--" said Mrs Laval.

"Ah!" said Norton. "I didn't say anything about the other. It wouldn't
distress me at all to have Judy shut up in her room a few days."

"But not by sickness!" said his mother.

"Not particular how, mamma; do Judy no harm either. She wants taking