e Continental in
Philadelphia.

"There's to be a consultation to-morrow of all the best surgeons in the
city. Enna wanted me to stay with her till that was over, but I couldn't
think of it with all these children fretting and worrying to get down here
out of the heat. So I told her I'd leave Cal to take care of her and
Molly.

"Dick's with them too. He's old enough to be useful now, and Molly clings
to him far more than to her mother."

"Isn't it dreadful," said Virginia, "to think that that fall down-stairs
has made her a cripple for life? though nobody thought she was much hurt
at first."

"Poor child! how does she bear it?" asked her uncle.

"She doesn't know how to bear it at all," said Mrs. Conly; "she nearly
cries her eyes out."

"No wonder," remarked the grandfather; "it's a terrible prospect she has
before her, to say nothing of the present suffering. And her mother has no
patience with her; pities herself instead of the child."

"No," said Mrs. Conly, "Enna was never known to have much patience with
anybody or anything."

"But Dick's good to her," remarked Isadore.

"Yes," said Arthur, "it's really beautiful to see his devotion to her and
how she clings to him. And it's doing the lad good;--making a man of
him."

"Surely Enna must feel for her child!" Elsie said, thinking of her own
darlings and how her very heart would be torn with anguish at the sight of
one of them in so distressing a condition.

"Yes, of course, she cried bitterly over her when first the truth dawned
upon her that Molly was really so dreadfully injured; but of course that
couldn't last and she soon took to bewailing her own hard fate in having
such a burden on her hands, a daughter who must always live single and
could never be anything but a helpless invalid."

Elsie understood how it was; for had she not known Enna from a child? Her
heart ached for Molly, and as she told her own little ones of their poor
cousin's hopeless, helpless state, she mingled her tears with theirs.

"Mamma, won't you 'vite her to come here?" pleaded Harold.

"Yes, dear mamma, do," urged the others, "and let us all try to amuse and
comfort her."

"If I do, my dears, you may be called upon at times to give up your
pleasures for her. Do you think you will be willing to do so?"

At that the young faces grew very grave, and for a moment no one spoke.
Quick, impulsive Violet was the first to answer.

"Yes, mamma, I'm willing; I do feel so sorry for