down to kiss her sweet lips.

"Lily?" he said in a choking voice.

With a great effort Elsie controlled her emotion, and answered low and
tremulously, "She is almost done with pain. She is very happy--no doubt,
no fear, only gladness that soon she will be

'Safe in the arms of Jesus,
Safe on his gentle breast'"

Eddie turned away with a broken sob. Vi uttered a low cry of anguish; and
Rosie and the boys broke into a wail of sorrow.

Till that moment they had not given up hope that the dear one might even
yet be restored.

In the sick-room the golden head lay on a snow white pillow, the blue eyes
were closed, and the breath came pantingly from the pale, parted lips.

"Cousin Arthur" had his finger on the slender wrist, counting its
pulsations, while father and grandfather stood looking on in anxious
solicitude, and the mother bent over her fading flower, asking in tender
whispered accents, "are you in pain, my darling?"

"No, mamma, only so tired; so tired!"

Only the mother's quick ear, placed close to the pale lips, could catch
the low-breathed words.

The doctor administered a cordial, then a little nourishment was given,
and the child fell asleep.

The mother sat watching her, lost to all else in the world. Arthur came to
her side with a whispered word about her own need of rest and refreshment
after her fatiguing journey.

"How long?" she asked in the same low tone, glancing first at the white
face on the pillow, then at him.

"Some days, I hope; and she is likely now to sleep for hours. Let me take
your place."

Elsie bent over the child, listening for a moment to her breathing, then
accepting his offer, followed her husband and father from the room.

Rosie, waiting and watching in the hall without, sprang to her mother's
embrace with a low, joyful cry, "Mamma, mamma! oh, you've been gone so
long, so long! I thought you'd never come back."

"Mamma is very glad to be with you again," Elsie said, holding her close
for a moment, then resigning her to her father, she sought the others,
all near at hand, and waiting eagerly for a sight of her loved face, a
word from her gentle lips.

They were all longing for one of the old confidential talks, Violet,
perhaps, more than the others; but it could not be now, the mother could
scarcely allow herself time for a little rest, ere she must return to her
station by the side of the sick bed.

But Molly was not forgotten or neglected. Elsie went to