16
A FRIEND INDEED.

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\| HERE was no doubt about it—little Maggie was
hel, desperately ill; and her brother Jack, as he knelt

Sy beside her bed, felt as though his heart would
break. For they were all the world to each
other, these two. Their father had died long
ago, and their mother, alas! was mother to them
only in name.

Suddenly Maggie opened her eyes. “Jack,” she said,
“if I had a dolly, I think I could get better.” A dolly!
How could Jack get her that? She might almost as well.
have asked him for the moon! Not for the world would
he tell her so, however. He kissed the little wan face, and
without a word left the room and the house. Walking

- dejectedly along a squalid street, he came to a building
brightly lighted. Scarcely knowing why, he looked in. A
school prize distribution was in progress, and Jack gazed
wistfully at the books and toys many of the children were
holding. Presently a lady noticed him, and spoke to him.
Jack never quite knew how it happened, but before long he
found himself telling her all about Maggie and her desire
for a dolly.

The end of it was that the lady went home with Jack ;
and that same evening, when Maggie said good-night to
him, a beautiful doll—her very own—was clasped tight in
her tiny arms. Nor was that all; the kind-hearted lady
cared for Maggie till she got well again; she found work
for Jack; and she persuaded the children’s mother, with
God’s help, to give up her evil ways. Was she not a
friend indeed ?