off by
this time?"

So she stole into the bedroom, which opened out of the kitchen, took a
peep at her beloved Willy, made sure his nose was safe, and turned down
the coverlet to see if his hands were warm.

"Poor, sweet little lamb! Not much cold now; but thee will be cold;
this room is just like a barn."

Then, as "Liddy" went back to the kitchen, she wondered if it might not
be the cold weather that made Willy have what she called his
"walking-spells."

"For he is so much worse in winter than he is in summer," thought she.
"Any way, I'm going to try, and see if I can't put a stop to it
to-night; and then, if the _expeeriment_ works, I'll try it again."

What "expeeriment"? You will soon see. There had been a quantity of
charcoal put on the kitchen fire to broil some steak for travellers; so
the kind-hearted Liddy bustled about on tiptoe, filled a shallow pan
with some of the coals, "piping hot," and placed it very near the
trundle-bed, on Mrs. Parlin's foot-stove.

Alas for Liddy's ignorance! she was always rather foolish in her
fondness for Willy; but didn't she know any better than to put a dish of
red coals so near him in a small room, and then go out and shut the
door? She often said she didn't "see any use in all this book-larning,"
and wondered Mrs. Parlin should be so anxious to have her children go to
school. In her whole life Liddy had never attended school more than six
months; and as for chemistry and philosophy she knew nothing about them
except that they are hard words to spell. She did not dream that there
was a deadly gas rising every moment from that charcoal, and that her
darling Willy was breathing it into his lungs. She may have heard of the
word "gas," but if she had she supposed it was some sort of "airy
nothing" not worth mentioning.

Of course _you_ know that if she had hated Willy, and wished to murder
him, she could hardly have chosen a surer way than this; but poor Liddy
went back to the kitchen with a smiling face, feeling well pleased with
her "_expeeriment_," and began to chop a hash of beef, pork, and all
sorts of vegetables, for to-morrow's breakfast.

After a little while Willy began to toss about uneasily; but he did not
come out of the room and Liddy was delighted. She had said she meant to
put a stop to that; and so, indeed, she had,--for this time at least.
The dear child had not strength enough to get out of bed, and moaned as
if a heavy hand were clutching at his throat