tightly together; yet she was looking very happy and pleased.

Then Lottie went on:--

"'Heinrich and I set off at once to ----' (reader, I _cannot_ read the
name of the village!), 'but some time before we got there we met a
pretty Swiss girl, with a bundle of corn on her head, whose eyes and
mouth reminded me very much of your kind nurse. So I put my hand on
Heinrich's shoulder to stop him, and then I asked her if her name was
Laurec, and she said, "Yes." So we had a long talk, and she told me all
about them at home, and of the fever in the village, and the want of
work, and all the rest. I fancy it has been little short of starvation
for them all this long time. Then I let her hurry on to tell them at
home who was coming. Such a sweet hill-side village as I cannot hope to
make my little English birds understand, with its pretty chalets lying
against the rock, and the bushy trees shooting out of the cliff above
and around them. I went up to the one pointed out to me, and there,
lying on a heap of rags, was Susette's little blind sister, that she has
often talked to you about. Dear little patient thing! turning her large,
dark, sightless eyes towards me with such a bright smile! As she spoke
of "le bon Dieu," I thought of the pretty French hymns you used to try
to learn, and it gave the soft French words a softer sound when they
were on such a happy theme. But we could not stay there; so making our
little present to the dear child, we set off up the mountain. We had not
gone far, when, among a flock of goats scattered over the hill, we found
a poor old man sitting on a rock, with very downcast look, and little
Pierre Laurec, who had come to show us the way, told us it was his
father. The poor old man was very much out of heart, and it was some
time before we could make him understand that we wanted to help him. At
Susette's name he looked mournfully in my face as I sat down by him,