22 @ °° DIGGING A GRAVE

young hearts? Just one minute, nurse; it’s
the blessed prayers I should be saying, and
not crooning my own thoughts.”

And then she repeated what she believed
in reverently and tenderly, and having heard
that the miserable mother was sleeping,
she could not help muttering, — 246 “it would
be a mercy if she never woke,’—as she
left the hospital. On the steps she was way-
laid by poor Nelly’s little friend, whose: cries -
were great because she was refused admit-
tance; she was a fierce little thing, whose
feelings knew no restraint, and when she

heard her friend was dead, she clung to

Peggy wildly, entreating to see “her Nelly

only once, once more.” |

“Oh, my child,” said Peggy; “you must
not take on SO} she is out of all sin and
sorrow.’
«And has left me alone in it; she was.
the only thing I had in the world to care

for, ’ screamed the girl.