of interest. Dr. Joe had told her a very moving
story when he was up to tea on Sunday evening, about a little girl who
had been two months in the hospital and who had just come home for good
now, who lived only a little way below them. It was Daisy Jasper, whom
they had seen a little while last summer in a wheeling chair, and who
had disappeared before any one's curiosity could be satisfied. She was
an only child, and her parents were very comfortably well off. When
Daisy was about six years old, a fine, healthy, and beautiful little
girl, she had trodden on a spool dropped by a careless hand and fallen
down a long flight of stairs. Beside a broken arm and some bruises she
did not seem seriously injured. But after a while she began to complain
of her back and her hip, and presently the sad knowledge dawned upon
them that their lovely child was likely to be a cripple. Various
experiments were tried until she became so delicate her life appeared
endangered. Mr. Jasper had been attracted to this pretty row of houses
standing back from the street with the flower gardens in front. It
seemed secluded yet not lonely. She grew so feeble, however, that the
doctors had recommended Sulphur Springs in Virginia, and thither they
had taken her. When the cool weather came on they had gone farther south
and spent the winter in Florida. She had improved and gained sufficient
strength, the doctors thought, to endure an operation. It had been
painful and tedious, but she had borne it all so patiently. Dr. Mott and
Dr. Francis had done their best, but she would always be a little
deformed. The prospect was that some day she might walk without a
crutch. Joe had seen a good deal of her, and at one visit he had told
her of his little sister who was just her age, as their birthdays were
in May.

Hanny had cried over the sorrowful tale. She thought of her early story
heroine, "Little Blind Lucy," whose sight had been so marvellously
restored. But Daisy could never be quite restored to straightness.

After supper Joe had taken her down to call on Daisy. Oh, how pretty the
gardens were, a beautiful spot of greenery and bloom, such a change from
the pavements! A narrow brick walk ran up to the house, edged with rows
of dahlias just coming into bloom. On the other side there were circles
and triangles and diamond-shaped beds with borders of small flowers, or
an entire bed of heliotrope or verbena. The very air was fragrant. Up
near the house was a