e little old doublegown which
she had brought with her and which had been a friend of her own
childish days, Faith gave him to Reuben to hold while she made up the
bed and changed the clothes, the means for which she had also won from
the housekeeper. Then having let down the chintz curtains to shield off
the intense glare of the sunny snow, Faith assumed Johnny into her own
arms. She had brought vinegar from home, and with it bathed the little
boy's face and hands and brushed his hair, till the refreshed little
head lay upon her breast in soothed rest and comfort.

"There, Johnny!"--she whispered as her lips touched his brow,--"Mr.
Linden may come as soon as he pleases--we are ready for him!"

The child half unclosed his eyes at the words, and then sunk again into
one of his fits of feverish sleep, the colour rising in his cheeks a
little, the breath coming quick. Reuben knelt down at Faith's side and
watched him.

"I used to wonder, Miss Faith," he said softly, "what would become of
him if Mr. Linden ever went away"--and the quiet pause told what
provision Reuben thought was fast coming for any such contingency.

"You can't think what Mr. Linden's been to Johnny, Miss Faith," he went
on in the same low voice,--"and to all of us," he added lower still.
"But he's taken such care of him, in school and out. It was only last
week Johnny told me he liked coming to school in the winter, because
then Mr. Linden always went home with him. And whenever he could get in
Mr. Linden's lap he was perfectly happy. And Mr. Linden would let him,
sometimes, even in school, because Johnny was so little and not very
strong,--and he'd let him sit in his lap and go to sleep for a little
while when he got tired, and then Johnny would go back to his lessons
as bright as a bee. That was the way he did the very first day school
was opened, for Johnny was frightened at first, and a mind to cry--he'd
never had anybody to take much care of him. And Mr. Linden just called
him and took him up and spoke to him--and Johnny laid his head right
down and went to sleep; and he's loved Mr. Linden with all his heart
ever since. I know we all laughed--and he smiled himself, but it made
all the rest of us love him too."

Reuben had gone on talking, softly, as if he felt sure of sympathy in
all he might say on the subject. But that "first day school was
opened!"--how Faith's thoughts sprang back there,--with what strange,
mixed memories the vision of it c