excitement,' she thought bitterly, after all was hushed in
silence, and she lay weak and faint, watching the slumbers of the
innocent children beside her. 'My God, pity me!' 'What have I done to
deserve this cruel fate?' She thought of the long, miserable hours she
had passed alone with her helpless darlings, listening for the unsteady
footsteps of him who had vowed to protect her, and guard her from life's
ills. And this was the end. She wished she could die, but for the
children, what would become of them? 'Free from excitement,' indeed. An
unprotected woman, with two small children, and only one pair of hands
to work with, and these disabled, and food and fire to get, and a roof
to shelter them, to say nothing of warm comfortable clothing.'

"'She got up too quick, and worried too much,' said the Doctor, when he
was called again a few weeks later. 'I can do nothing for her. Where's
that wretch of a husband?'

"'In the workhouse,' sobbed Mrs. Maloney. 'What will become of the
children when she's dead?'

"'Have to send them to the Orphan Asylum, I suppose. Dear me! I never
could see what poor people wanted with so many children, anyway,' and
the elegant Dr. Dash sauntered down the four flights of stairs, humming
a fashionable opera, and speculating how much that beautiful Miss
Osborne really possessed in her own right.

"'Indeed, they won't go to the Orphan Asylum,' said little Mrs. Macarty,
'if I have to work and sustain them myself. The sweet, pretty darlings!
How would I feel if that was my own Katy, now?'

"Nobody being able to say just how she would feel in that emergency, she
bustled round, sniffing at imaginary Orphan Asylums, and nodding her
head sagaciously, saying, 'We will show them a thing or two about Orphan
Asylums, won't we now?'

"But little Angel had a plan of her own. Away down in her child's heart
there was a sacred memory of a mother's anxious, tear-stained face, and
grandma trying to comfort her with the message that had been the solace
of her own grief-stricken old age:

"'Never despair, daughter! Remember, 'whom the Lord loveth He
chasteneth.' I had a heavenly dream about William, last night, and I
feel sure that he'll find the right way at last. We'll pray for him
together, and surely God will hear us.'

"'I believe that, Mother Way,' said the wife, eagerly. 'I could not die
and leave him to perish. He loves his children devotedly, and I believe
this child (drawing Angel nearer to her)