Aunt Barbara told her to read the 103d
Psalm. Hatty was a very pleasant reader, and she had lately taken great
pains not to speak too rapidly.

Aunt Barbara must have been pleased, for she kept Hatty reading,
reading, until the family came home from church; and when she turned to
leave the room, she said, "Thank you, child; I think going to your
grandma's has done you good."

Mrs. Lee had not told Aunt Barbara of Hatty's letter about her new
resolutions, yet the old lady felt that some change must have taken
place in Hatty to make her willing to give up her own pleasure to sit in
that quiet room with a sick, fretful old woman, as Aunt Barbara knew
herself to be that morning.

Hatty enjoyed her afternoon at Sunday school all the more for the
sacrifice she had made; and when the children all gathered in the parlor
before tea to say their catechism and Bible verses to their father, she
felt as if she were one of the happiest little girls in the world.

Mrs. Lee was all the afternoon with Aunt Barbara, and when night came
the Doctor was sent for, and Jane and Betsy were called in to help Mrs.
Lee to get the poor old lady into bed, for she was very sick.

The Doctor looked soberly, and said the disease must have been coming on
some time--that there was a great deal of irritation in her system, and
he could not say how her sickness might end.

Hatty and Marcus heard the Doctor say these words in the hall as he went
out. The tears came into Hatty's eyes, and she said to her brother, "How
I wish we had never spoken a wrong word to Aunt Barbara!"

Marcus did not reply, but he walked away to his room, to lie awake with
sad, repentant thoughts.

Mrs. Lee had no idea how rude her children had often been to Aunt
Barbara; her presence had been some check upon them, though she had
heard enough to give her pain. Aunt Barbara had led for many years a
quiet life, and the noise and restlessness of children tired and worried
her; and latterly she had been far from well.

Mrs. Lee had been for some weeks confined to her room, and during this
time Aunt Barbara had had much to bear from Marcus and the little ones;
but she never complained to Mrs. Lee, though she daily grew more harsh
in her own manner to the children.

A little gentleness, a little patience on the part of those who were
young, healthy and happy, would have done much to make poor old Aunt
Barbara more pleasant and cheerful.

VI.

Now came an anxious peri