s were crowded, and the air in them so warm as to cause the
perspiration to start from the fair brows of the merry dancers, among
whom none was more fair or more lively than Amanda Beaufort. At eleven,
after having passed an evening of much pleasure, she started for home
with her companion. She was so well wrapped up, that she did not feel
the cold, and her feet were protected from the damp pavement by the
impervious India rubber.

"I'm safe home, ma, after all!" she exclaimed with her merry ringing
laugh, as she bounded into the chamber where her ever-watchful and
interested mother sat awaiting her daughter's return.

"I am glad to see you back, Amanda," said Mrs. Beaufort kindly, "and
hope that no ill consequences will follow what I must still call a very
imprudent act."

"Oh I'm just as well as ever, and have not taken the least cold. How
could I, wrapped up so warm?"

Still, on the next morning, unaccountable as it was to Amanda, she was
quite hoarse, and was much troubled by a cough occasioned by a slight
but constant tickling in her throat. Accompanying these symptoms was a
pale anxious face and a general feeling of lassitude.

"I feared all this, Amanda," said her mother, with manifest concern.

"It's only a slight cold, ma. And, anyhow, I don't believe it was
occasioned by going out last night, I was wrapped up so warm. I must
have got the bed-clothes off of me in the night."

"What to one is a slight cold, my daughter, is a very serious affair to
another; and you are one of those who can never take a slight cold
without shocking the whole system. Your pale face and your evident
debility this morning show how much even this slight cold, as you call
it, has affected you. That you have this cold is to me no subject of
wonder. You were well wrapped up, it is true, and your feet protected.
Still, your face was exposed, and every particle of air you inhaled was
teeming with moisture. From dancing in a warm room, the pores of your
skin were all opened, and the striking of moist chilly air upon your
face could hardly fail of producing some degree of cold. The most
susceptible parts of your body are your throat and lungs, and to these
any shock which is received by the system is directly conveyed. You
cannot take cold in your hand or foot or face, or any other part of
your body, without your breast sympathizing;--that you are hoarse, and
have a slight cough, then, is to me in no way surprising."

Amanda tried t