THE FAITHFUL NURSE. 32

“What is the name of your good old nurse, Maurice?”
said Louis Tarleton, |

“ Burton,” answered Maurice, “and I am sorry she
was not better received by my friends on her first visit
to me; but probably none of you feel towards an old
person as I do, or have had the same cause. But I
must persuade you to love and respect. her, for she is
coming to live in the little green cottage, half a mile
from the school, and Mrs. Harding has promised to
employ her when sickness or any extra occasion shall
require her services. I am sure, when you know her,
you will never treat her disrespectfully again ; let me
tell you something of her.”

The boys gathered round Maurice.

“IT suppose all of you have mothers who watched
over your childhood, wiped your tears, and gave you
every pleasure; but I have no remembrance of my
mother. She died when I was hardly a year old. My
father, who is an officer in the navy, was absent on a
long cruise at the time, and I was left entirely to the
care of good Nurse Burton. She has often described
to me my mother’s farewell of me. .She was very young
—scarcely twenty—when she died. My nurse took
me to her, and laid me on the bed by her side. She
placed her feeble hand on my head, and prayed silently
afew moments, and then said, ‘I have put up onge
more, and for the last time, the only one prayer I have

offered for my little Maurice since the first hour of his
(100) 3