gave them, as a child to a child. And all the while she let Johnny
constantly be changing his position, as restlessness prompted; from
sitting to kneeling and lying in her arms; sometimes brushing his hair,
which once in a while he had a fancy for, and sometimes combing it off
from his forehead with her own fingers dipped in the vinegar and water
which he liked to smell. Nothing could be more winning--nothing more
skilful, in its way, than Faith's talk to the sick child that half hour
or more. And Johnny told its effect, in the way he would bid her
"talk," if she paused for a minute. So by degrees the restless fit
passed off for the time, and he lay still in her arms, with drooping
heavy eyelids now.

Everything was subsiding;--the sun sank down softly behind the wavy
horizon line, the clouds floated silently away to some other harbour,
and the blasts of wind came fainter and fainter, like the music of a
retreating army. Swiftly the daylight ebbed away, and still Faith
rocked softly back and forth, and her mother watched her. Once in a
while Reuben came silently in to bring wood or fresh water,--otherwise
they had no interruption. Then Mr. Linden came, and sitting down by
Faith as he had done before, asked about the child and about the doctor.

"He came very soon after you went away," said Faith. "He said that he
was no better, and that to be no better was to be worse." It was plain
that she thought more than she said. Faith had little experience, but
there is an intuitive skill in some eyes to know what they have never
known before.

Mr. Linden bent down over the child, laying cheek to cheek softly and
silently, until Johnny rousing up a little held up his lips to be
kissed,--and he did not raise his head then.

"Have you been asleep, Johnny?" he said.

"I don't know," the child said dreamily.

"Has Miss Faith taken care of you ever since I went?"

"Yes," Johnny said, with a little faint smile--"and we've had talk."

"I wish I had been here to hear it," said Mr. Linden. "What was it
about?--all sorts of sweet things?"

"Yes," Johnny said again, his face brightening--"out of the Bible."

"Well they are the sweetest things I know of," said Mr. Linden. "Now if
you will come on my lap, I am sure Miss Faith will get you something to
eat--she can do it a great deal better than I can."

Faith had soon done that, and brought the cup to Johnny, of something
that he liked, and fed him as she had done at noon. It seem