ore I was fully myself, months before I recovered from
the illness caused by the cold I had taken, and years before I got
back my courage and could bear to be alone--especially at night, when
all the horrors of that time would come up before me as vividly as on
that dreadful night.

* * * * *

"How dreadful!" said Kristy in a low tone, as Mrs. Wilson paused.

"I needn't point the moral to you, Kristy," Mrs. Wilson said, "but I
assure you I learned my lesson well; and that's why I keep my dear
little dog's body in a glass case. I cherished him beyond everything
as long as he lived, and couldn't bear to give him up when he died at
a good old age.

"Now," said Mrs. Wilson, "I must really go. It has stopped raining,
Kristy, and I have paid mamma's debt."

"No, indeed!" cried Kristy. "You have told me lovely stories, and
mamma owes me two to pay for them!"

"That's a curious way of calculating," said Mrs. Wilson, laughing; "do
you expect to be paid twice for everything?"

"Yes; when it's stories," said Kristy.

"Kristy'll soon have to write stories for herself, I think," said her
mother, smiling, "when she has exhausted the stock of all her
friends."

Kristy blushed, but did not confess that that was her pet ambition.

"Now, mamma," said Kristy that evening after supper was over, "some
more rainy day stories, please!"

"Will you have them all at once?" asked mamma, taking up some fancy
knitting she kept for evenings, "or one at a time?"

"One at a time, please," answered Kristy.

"Well; get your work. How much did you do this afternoon?"

Kristy looked guilty. "You know I just _can't_ remember to knit when
I'm listening to a story. I--I--believe I did not knit once across."

Her mother laughed. "The poor Barton baby'll go cold, I'm afraid, if
he waits for his carriage robe till you finish it. How would you like
to knit him a pair of stockings? Shall I set them up and give you a
daily stint?"

"Ugh!" said Kristy. "Please don't talk of anything so dreadful! You
told me yourself how you hated it."

"It's a very good plan, nevertheless," said Mrs. Crawford. "Perhaps it
would have been wiser not to tell you about that."

"Now, mamma!" said Kristy reproachfully.

"I think," mamma went on, "that I shall have to make up for that story
of a girl who didn't like to work,--at least that kind of work,"--she
corrected herself, "by telling you about a girl who worked enough for
two."