tily, Dr. Kruger came upstairs on his evening round of calls, and he
stopped to see what was the trouble with Miss Redfern's charge. Then how
he laughed! Poor Billy Bolee was begging to be put in bed, and here we'd
been trying for an hour to find out what was the matter."

Peace laughed heartily. "That was a good joke on the nurses, wasn't it?"
she remarked, when her merriment had subsided. "But why do you keep him
here now if his mother is dead?"

"The doctors are endeavoring to cure his little foot so he can walk all
right again. He was hurt in the same railroad accident which killed his
mother, and the injury has made one leg shorter than the other."

"O," cried Peace in horror. "And he hasn't any relations to take care of
him after he gets well?"

"Not that we know of."

"Then what will you do with him? He can't live here always, can he?"

"No. Some day he will have to be sent to a Children's Home or some such
institution where homeless waifs are cared for, until some kind heart
adopts him."

"But no one wants _lame_ children to adopt," Peace protested. "Do you
s'pose Billy Bolee will ever get adopted?"

"We _hope_ so."

Peace was silent a moment, then thoughtfully remarked, "There was a fat
old hen in our church--there! I didn't mean to say fat, 'cause I
wouldn't hurt your feelings for the world,--but Mrs. Burns was fat, and
she used to come over to our house after I got hurt and tell me how
thankful I ought to be. It made me awful mad at first, but I b'lieve I
know now what she meant. Now there's my Lilac Lady,--she had heaps of
money, and a great, splendid house to live in, and Aunt Pen to take care
of her; so even if she never could walk again, 'twasn't as bad as it
would have been s'posing she was poor and didn't have anything of her
own. Then there's me. If I had fallen off a roof in Parker and cracked
my back, 'twould have been perfectly awful, 'cause there would have been
no money for doctors and such like, and I guess it costs heaps to get
operated on. But as it is now, I've got Grandpa and Grandma Campbell to
take care of me, and there ain't any danger of my being sent to a
Children's Home or the poor farm. There are a pile of thankfuls in this
world, ain't there?"

"Yes indeed," answered the nurse warmly. "This world is a pretty good
old world, and no matter what happens, there is always something left
for every one to be thankful about. Isn't that so?"

"Uh-huh. That's what Papa used to tell