half the time I don't even know where they are, or what they are doing.
And I can't get up and go after them, you know."

"But you can make your room such a delightful place, that they will
want to come to you! Don't you see, a sick person has one splendid
chance--she is always on hand. Everybody who wants her knows just
where to go. If people love her, she gets naturally to be the heart of
the house.

"Once make the little ones feel that your room is the place of all
others to come to when they are tired, or happy, or grieved, or sorry
about anything, and that the Katy who lives there is sure to give them a
loving reception--and the battle is won. For you know we never do
people good by lecturing; only by living their lives with them, and
helping a little here, and a little there, to make them better. And when
one's own life is laid aside for a while, as yours is now, that is the
very time to take up other people's lives, as we can't do when we are
scurrying and bustling over our own affairs. But I didn't mean to preach
a sermon. I'm afraid you're tired."

"No, I'm not a bit," said Katy, holding Cousin Helen's hand tight in
hers; "you can't think how much better I feel. Oh, Cousin Helen, I
will try!"

"It won't be easy," replied her cousin. "There will be days when your
head aches, and you feel cross and fretted, and don't want to think of
any one but yourself. And there'll be other days when Clover and the
rest will come in, as Elsie did just now, and you will be doing
something else, and will feel as if their coming was a bother. But you
must recollect that every time you forget, and are impatient or