an save her.
Ask him, master."

But old Oliver paid no heed to him. For the child who was passing away
from him he was all eye and ear, watching and listening as keenly as in
his best and strongest days; but he was blind and deaf to everything else
around him. Tony's voice could not reach his brain.

"Will gan-pa come rere?" whispered the failing and faltering voice of
Dolly.

"Very soon," he answered; a radiant smile coming to his face, which made
her smile as her eyes caught the glory of it. "Very, very soon, my little
love. You'll be there to meet me when I come."

"Dolly'll watch for gan-pa," she murmured, with long pauses between the
words, which seemed to drop one by one upon Tony's ear; "and Dolly'll
watch at the door for Tony to come home; and she'll fret ever so if he
never comes."

Tony felt her stir restlessly under his arm, and stretch her tiny limbs
upon the bed as if she were very tired, and the languid eyelids drooped
slowly till they quite hid her blue eyes, and she sighed softly as
children sigh when they fall asleep, weary of their play. Old Oliver laid
his shaking hand tenderly upon her head.

"Dear Lord!" he said, "take my little love to thyself. I give her
up to thee."

It seemed to Tony as if a thick mist of darkness fell all about him, and
as if he were sinking down, down, very low into some horrible pit where
he would never see the light of day again. But by-and-bye he came to
himself, and found old Oliver sobbing in short, heavy sobs, and swaying
himself to and fro, while Beppo was licking Dolly's hand, and barking
with a sharp, quiet bark, as he had been wont to do when he wanted her to
play with him. The child's small features were quite still, but there was
an awful smile upon them such as there had never been before, and Tony
could not bear to look upon it. He crossed her tiny hands lightly over
one another upon her breast, and then he lifted Beppo away gently, and
drew the bed-clothes about her, so as to hide her smiling face.

"Master," he cried, "master, is she gone?"

Old Oliver only answered by a deep moan; and Tony put his arm about him,
and raised him up.

"Come to your own chair, master," he said.

He yielded to Tony like a child, and seated himself in the chair, where
he had so often sat and watched Dolly while he smoked his pipe. The boy
put his pipe between his fingers; but he only let it fall to the ground,
where it broke into many pieces. Tony did not know what to