I can toward alleviating the distress of those stricken sufferers."

"Why, Agnes, dear, you would surely perish yourself."

"O no, mother, you forget how I waited on papa and you when you both
had the fever down in New Orleans."

This was true. Several years before, while the Arnolds had been making
a pleasure tour in the Southern States, they had been seized with the
disorder, and but for the unflagging, heroic devotion of Agnes, they
would most likely have perished.

"No, darling, I could never forget that were I to live a hundred
years. It is because I do remember the horror of that time that I
would not wish you to expose yourself to such another. Besides, what
would I do without you?"

"That is the only subject that gives me any pain, mother; but then God
would take care of you as well as of me, would he not?"

"Yes."

"I know it, mother. You have always taught me that, and I firmly
believe it. God, who sees and notes the fall of even a sparrow, will
not let me fall, except it be His gracious will. No, mother, I feel
that I must go, and you must consent and give me your best blessing.
It is strange that we see no account of ministers or members of any
denomination but the Roman Church volunteering to go to the stricken
city. All seem to stand aloof but them. How noble are those truly
Christian and devoted women, the Sisters of Mercy! And shall I be idle