"  How  old  is  your  baby  ?"

"Eleven  months  old,  ma'am."

"  Is  your  husband  living  ?"

:'No,  ma'am;  he  died  more  than  a  year  ago."

"  How  many  children  have  you  ?"

"Four."

"All  young?"

"Yes,  ma'am.     The  oldest  is  only  in  her  tenth
2


14  A   LESSON   OF   PATIENCE.
year,  but  she  is  a  good  little  girl,  and  takes  care  of
the  baby  for  me  almost  as  well  as  a  grown  person.
I  don't  know  what  I  would  do  without  her."

"  But  ain't  you  afraid  to  leave  them  all  at  home
alone,  for  so  long  a  Mine  ?"

"  No,  ma'am.  Jane  takes  excellent  care  of  them,
and  she  is  so  kind  that  they  will  obey  her  as  well
as  they  do  me.  I  don't  know  what  in  the  world  I
would  do  without  her.  I  am  certainly  blessed  in
having  so  good  a  child/'

"  And  only  in  her  tenth  year !"  said  I — the  image
of  my  Alice  coming  before  my  mind,  with  the
thought  of  the  little  use  she  would  be  as  a  nurse
and  care-taker  of  her  younger  brothers  and  sisters.
