an' he 's done it."

I had been intently watching the excited speaker; but as he regretfully
added those last words I turned again, and Robert's eyes met
mine,--those melancholy eyes, so full of an intelligence that proved he
had heard, remembered, and reflected with that preternatural power
which often outlives all other faculties. He knew me, yet gave no
greeting; was glad to see a woman's face, yet had no smile wherewith to
welcome it; felt that he was dying, yet uttered no farewell. He was
too far across the river to return or linger now; departing thought,
strength, breath, were spent in one grateful look, one murmur of
submission to the last pang he could ever feel. His lips moved, and,
bending to them, a whisper chilled my cheek, as it shaped the broken
words,--

"I would have done it,--but it 's better so,--I'm satisfied."

Ah! well he might be,--for, as he turned his face from the shadow of
the life that was, the sunshine of the life to be touched it with a
beautiful content, and in the drawing of a breath my contraband found
wife and home, eternal liberty and God.

NELLY'S HOSPITAL

Nelly sat beside her mother picking lint; but while her fingers flew,
her eyes often looked wistfully out into the meadow, golden with
buttercups, and bright with sunshine. Presently she said, rather
bashfully, but very earnestly, "Mamma, I want to tell you a little plan
I've made, if you'll please not laugh."

"I think I can safely promise that, my dear," said her mother, putting
down her work that she might listen quite respectfully.

Nelly looked pleased, and went on confidingly,

"Since brother Will came home with his lame foot, and I've helped you
tend him, I've heard a great deal about hospitals, and liked it very
much. To-day I said I wanted to go and be a nurse, like Aunt Mercy; but
Will laughed, and told me I'd better begin by nursing sick birds and
butterflies and pussies before I tried to take care of men. I did not
like to be made fun of, but I've been thinking that it would be very
pleasant to have a little hospital all my own, and be a nurse in it,
because, if I took pains, so many pretty creatures might be made well,
perhaps. Could I, mamma?"

Her mother wanted to smile at the idea, but did not, for Nelly looked
up with her heart and eyes so full of tender compassion, both for the
unknown men for whom her little hands had done their best, and for the
smaller sufferers nearer home, that she stroke