WATCHING. . 55

Sitting there so quietly, her mind would
keep bringing up before her memory all the
times she had led him into doing what he
ought not to have done, and had taught him
to conceal things, when if she had left him
alone he would have been frank and open.

“TI have never been unkind to him,” she
thought, sometimes, trying to look for a little
while on the other side. “He was always
very fond of me, and liked to be with me.
Ah! if he gets better, I will never, never lead
him into wrong again.”

Mr. Maine at this point roused himself with
a start, bent for a minute over his boy, then
went on tiptoe to the other room to look at his
wife. When he came back he walked round
to where Nellie sat, and pressed his hand ap-
' provingly on her shoulder,

“Sleepy, Nell?”

“Not a bit, father.”

He went back to his own place, and began
once more to try and keep awake. But again
sleep was too much for him, and he nodded.

Everything was so quiet. Even a cricket
that had been chirping its lively song some-
where in the house seemed to have gone to