lways laughing, and it was a laugh so utterly
joyous and free from care, that it seemed to have no place in this
weary, hard-working, grasping, eager, restless nineteenth century, but
to belong to some early age, before the world had lost its freshness,
or better still, to be an earnest, with all that is good and true, of
the "Restoration of all things."

[Illustration: Kate and Frances.]

She was leaning her head against Kate's shoulder, and talking eagerly.

"And then, dear Kate, as you have made up your mind to be a
schoolmistress in Westminster, and to teach those poor little sickly
children whom no one seems to care for, I have made up my mind to be an
hospital nurse, and Mother Agnes has given her consent; and oh Kate,
every spare minute they give me shall be spent with you. And you will
have some dear little sitting-room looking on the river, I know. And
there we shall sit together, and watch the rush of life on the river;
and talk of a hundred things--of your school children and my patients,
and the beautiful things that happen to us, and the comic ones. And,
as we are talking, Mother Agnes will perhaps come in for a cup of tea
(having come up to town on some errand), and you will give her the
nicest tea possible, and then we three will sit there still when it is
dark, and talk of everything in heaven and on earth. And when the
girls from here are put out to places in London, they will come and see
you, and have tea with you in your little sitting-room."

Voices and rushings of feet were heard on the stairs.

"Kate! where is Kate?"

"Kate, you are wanted in the schoolroom!"

"O Kate, here you are! Now, guess what has come for you from London!"

Little hands seized hold of Kate, and the children's eagerness was so
great that she was obliged to remind them that she had only a wooden
leg, and couldn't get downstairs quickly.

"Kate, we can't keep it back, we must tell you! It is your cork leg
arrived. Mother Agnes has given the last five pounds herself, and
ordered the leg to be here by Christmas."

But when Kate was introduced to her new member, with injunctions to
treat it with due respect, she was quite overcome. She leaned against
the wall and sobbed. She had never cried when she lost her leg; and it
was only the love and kindness shown her that made her cry now. But
the tears were only for a moment,--and they were followed by a great
rush of gladness.

The little ones would not be satisf