still sleeping.

Nelly and her cousin were just going out, each walking on tip-toe, so as
not to hurt mamma.

"I never saw a child so much changed," said the old lady who took care
of Mrs. Nelson. "I was here two years ago to nurse her mother; and she
was the torment of the house."

"She is very easily managed, now," answered Mrs. Gray. "She obeys my
slightest look."

"We've a little mite of a fellow in there," said the good nurse; "he
only weighed three pounds and a quarter with his clothes on. I never
thought he would live till this time."

"Is he quiet?" asked the aunt.

"He has turns of screaming dreadfully," answered the nurse. "That is
what has kept his mother so ill."

At this moment they heard Mr. Gray and Mr. Nelson coming up the stairs,
and the nurse opened the door and beckoned them into the nursery, as the
sick lady was trying to get some sleep while the baby was quiet.

Maria had been sitting in the room with her work; but now she arose and
said, "Baby will be likely to sleep a spell now, and I'll go down to the
kitchen and do my ironing."

"I will take care of him till you return," said Mrs. Gray.

Her husband and Willie were to ride home in the afternoon, and so her
brother had invited them up to see his little son. He seemed very
anxious about the baby, and asked his sister whether she thought it
would live.

Before she answered, the lady bent gently over the cradle, and put her
ear down to its chest. It was in such a deep sleep that it almost seemed
as if it were already dead. "I cannot tell," she said, seriously, "until
I have seen it when awake."

After dinner, before her husband returned home, she called him into the
parlor, and told him she was afraid Maria gave the baby something to
make it sleep so heavily, and she was determined to stay and watch her,
and try to save the dear child.

CHAPTER VI.

THE WICKED NURSE.

For two days Mrs. Gray scarcely left the nursery for a moment. The poor
little babe would lie and sleep for hours together, and when he was
awake he would scream and throw his head back as if he was going into a
fit. The lady would take him from Maria, and hold him on her breast, and
carry him about the room trying to soothe him, until at last he would
fall asleep again. All this time she had never been able to see that
Maria gave him any thing but his food. This was cream and boiling water,
made pretty sweet with loaf sugar, and she fed him with a spoon.