more, to be able to
go where one will, without vinegar cloths to one's face, and to
feel that the air is a thing to breathe with healing and delight,
instead of to be feared lest there be death in its kiss! Ah me! I
think God does not let us know how terrible a thing is till His
chastening hand is removed. We go on from day to day, and He gives
us strength for each day as it comes; but had we known at the
beginning what lay before us, methinks our souls would have well
nigh fainted within us. And yet here we are--all but one--safe and
sound at the other side!"

"I truly never thought to see such fearful sights, and to come
through such a terrible time of trial," said Dinah very gravely.
She was one of the party included in Mary Harmer's hospitable
invitation, and looked indeed more in need of the rest and change
than any of the others. Her brother had had some ado to get her to
quit her duties as nurse to the sick even yet, but it was not
difficult now to get tendance for them, and she felt so greatly the
need of rest that she had been persuaded at last.

"Many and many are the times when I have been left the only living
being in a house--once, so far as I could tell, the only living
thing in a whole street! None may know, save those who have been
through it, the awful loneliness of being so shut in, with nothing
near but dead bodies. And yet the Lord has brought me through, and
only one of our number has been taken."

The mother's eyes filled with tears, but her heart was too thankful
for those spared her to let her grief be loud. One after another
those round the table spoke of the things they had seen and heard;
but presently the talk drifted to brighter themes. Gertrude asked
eagerly of her father, and where he was and what he was doing; and
Mary Harmer asked if he would not come and join them, if her house
could be made to hold another inmate.

"He is well in health, but looks aged and harassed," was the answer
of the father. "He has had sad losses. Half-finished houses have
been thrown back on his hands through the death of those who had
commenced them; he has been robbed of his stores of costly
merchandise; and poor Frederick's debts have mounted up to a great
sum. Now that people are flocking back into the city, and business
is reviving once more, he will have to meet his creditors, and can
only do this by the sale of his house. I saw him yesterday, and
told him I had heard of a purchaser already; whereat