while her eyes flew suddenly open, and she pronounced the name of
Ellen quickly.

"I am here, Margaret," replied the sister, bending over her.

"Oh, Ellen, why did you stay away so long?" she said, looking up
into her face half reproachfully, and seeming not to observe the
presence of others. "I was so lonesome all day; and then at night I
waited and waited, and you didn't come home! You won't go away any
more--will you, Ellen?"

"No--no, sister, I won't leave you again," said Ellen, soothingly,
her tears starting afresh.

The words of Margaret smote upon the heart of Mary, whose great
eagerness to get the mourning dress done, so that she could go out
on Sunday, had been the cause of Ellen's long detention from her
sick sister. She hastily turned away from the bed, and seated
herself by the window, As she sat there, the image of her
baby-brother came up vividly before her mind, and with it the
feeling of desolation which the loss of a dear one always occasions.
And with this painful emotion of grief, there arose in her mind a
distinct consciousness that, since her thoughts had become
interested in the getting and making up of her mourning dress, she
had felt but little of the keen sorrow that had at first overwhelmed
her, and that now came back upon her mind like a flood. As she sat
thus in silent communion with herself, she was enabled to perceive
that, in her own mind, there had been much less of a desire to
commemorate the death of her brother, in putting on mourning, than
to appear before others to be deeply affected with grief. She saw