" asked Mrs. Ashford. She put the basket on the
table, and taking off her gloves, approached the bed.

"Now, Marty," she said, "as I raise Jennie, you beat up the pillows."

Marty beat them with a will, and the sick girl was soon comfortably
placed. She appeared greatly relieved and sighed from satisfaction. Mrs.
Ashford, seeing a tin plate on the shelf, covered it with one of the
napkins from her basket, and placing on it the small glass saucer of
strawberries and a rusk, gave it to Marty to carry to Jennie. The wan
face of the invalid flushed with pleasure when she saw the dainty food.

"For me!" she exclaimed.

"Of course it's for you," replied Marty, settling the plate on the bed.

Just then Mrs. Scott entered, almost breathless from her hurried walk,
having been detained, and knowing Jennie would need her. She was
exceedingly grateful when she found Mrs. Ashford and Marty ministering
to her sick child.

"O mother!" cried the latter. "The lady lifted me up in bed; and see the
strawberries! Some are for you."

"No, no," protested her mother, but Jennie persisted in forcing at least
one upon her. When Marty saw how the berries were enjoyed she felt very
well repaid for having been satisfied with a smaller portion herself.

Mrs. Ashford inquired what had been done for Jennie, and found she had
had no doctor since coming to the city.

"I have no money to pay a doctor," said poor Mrs. Scott, wiping her
eyes, "and I can't go to a stranger and ask him to attend her for
nothing. I give her the medicine the doctor told me to get when she was
first hurt, but it don't seem to do any good now."

Mrs. Ashford said she would speak to a doctor not far from there, with
whom she was well acquainted, and she was sure he would be willing to
come and see what could be done for the child.

"It is very hard that you have to be away from her so much, when she is
sick, and almost helpless."

"It is hard, mem, but what can I do? I must work to pay the rent and get
us bread, and glad enough I am to have the work. And she's not always so
forlorn as you found her, for mostly she can move herself. She's a bit
weak to-day. Then when I go for all day, I leave things handy on a chair
by the bed, and the people in the house are real kind, coming in to see
if she wants anything and to mend the fire."

In the meantime the children were not saying much, for Jennie, besides
being somewhat shy, appeared tired and weak. She was greatly plea