"O, God bless you! God bless you, always," exclaimed the poor mother,
thrilled with the deepest gratitude. "My darling! my baby! my baby!"

True to her word, Agnes never neglected the little thing, though
sometimes, between it and her patients, she was nearly beside herself.
Reader, if you are a woman, and have ever had even an ordinary
sickness in your household, you can easily comprehend the position in
which Agnes was placed with her three patients to nurse, and an infant
to care for at the same time. Yet she never murmured, never became
impatient.

But, in the mysterious workings of Providence, it was destined that
the good, the beautiful, the angelic girl should not be long of this
world.

"De good Lord ob hebben has tuk her away to her reward!" wept an old
negress, who had been saved by the kind and tender care of Agnes, a
short time before, and who had waited on her in her dying moments, and
closed her eyes when all was over.

This poor old creature was only too happy when they gave her
permission to prepare the inanimate form of her late benefactress for
the grave. When she had done all, she did not know what to do for some
ornament, till at last a brilliant thought came across her mind, and
she adopted it.

Wherever Agnes used to go she always carried a small basket containing
little useful articles, together with a pocket Bible, out of which she
was ever reading some portion of God's holy word, appropriate to the