of the things we like, when they are right
and proper. They show they love us and like to have us love them in
return."

"Oh, I just couldn't live without mother!" and the tears overflowed
Tudie's eyes.

"And I know it would break her heart, and father's, too, if they lost
us. And so we ought to try and make each other happy. I mean to think
more about it. And, oh, Tudie, if Mrs. Reed could be converted! People
are sometimes when they've been very ill. Suppose we pray for that."

They did heartily; and Josie resolved not to miss one night. It would
make bonny Prince Charlie so happy to have his mother changed into a
sweet, tender woman.

Charles didn't dare pray for that. God knew what was best for any one,
and He _did_ have the power. He wondered what things were right to put
in one's prayers. Some years after he came to know it was "all things,"
just as one might ask of a human father, knowing that sometimes even the
father after the flesh, in his larger wisdom, saw that it was best to
deny.

"Don't you want to look in on your mother?" Cousin Jane said the next
morning. He had not seen her in several days.

"Oh, yes," answered Charles.

Mrs. Reed had been thin before; but now she looked ghostly, with her
sunken eyes and sharpened nose and chin. Charles had a great desire to
kiss her; but she did not approve of such "foolishness." Her poor
skeleton hand, that had done so much hard and useless work, lay on the
spread in a limp fashion, as if it would never do anything again.

Charles took it up and pressed it to his cheek. Mrs. Reed opened her
eyes, and a wavering light, hardly a smile, crossed her face.

"I've been very sick," and, oh, how faint the sound was, quivering, too,
as if it had not the strength to steady itself! And then the thin lids
fell. The death-like pallor startled him.

"But you're going to get well again."

The boy's sweet, confident tone touched her. She did not dare open her
eyes, lest she should cry, she was so weak. Then he said,
"Good-morning," and went softly out of the room, feeling that he was
glad in every pulse of his being that God had given her back to them.

Doctor Joe had a good deal of credit for the case. Dr. Fitch admitted
that it had been very severe, and required the utmost watchfulness. Mrs.
Underhill was very proud of her son's success "in his own country," as
she termed it. And she said when Mrs. Reed was well enough to see
visitors, she would go over and call. In