“_Your poor child?_ ... Mother! What _can_ you mean?”-- * * * * * What can she mean, indeed? I turn and gaze into her eyes. My face was hidden in her lap. Her hands stray across my hair and cheek. “_What is the matter, Mary?--dear Mary!_” “_Oh, Mother, I have Heaven in my heart at last!_” “_Tell me all about it, my poor child. Hush! There, there! my dear!_” “_Your poor child? Mother!_ _What_ CAN _this mean_?” * * * * * She broods and blesses me, she calms and gathers me. With a mighty cry, I fling myself against her heart, and sob my soul out, there. “You are better, child,” she says. “Be quiet. You will live.” Upon the edge of the sick-bed, sitting strained and weary, she leans to comfort me. The night-lamp burns dimly on the floor behind the door. The great red chair stands with my white woollen wrapper thrown across the arm. In the window the magenta geranium droops freezing. Mignonette is on the table, and its breath pervades the air. Upon the wall, the cross, the Christ, and the picture of my father look down. The doctor is in the room; I hear him say that he shall change the medicine, and some one, I do not notice who, whispers that it is thirty hours since the stupor, from which I have aroused, began. Alice comes in, and Tom, I see, has taken Mother’s place, and holds me--dear Tom!--and asks me if I suffer, and why I look so disappointed. Without, in the frosty morning, the factory-bells are calling the poor girls to their work. The shutter is ajar, and through the crack I see the winter day dawn on the world. * * * * * Standard and Popular Library Books SELECTED FROM THE CATALOGUE OF HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY. John Adams and Abigail Adams. Familiar Letters of, during the Revolution. 12mo, $2.00. Oscar Fay Adams. Handbook of English Authors. 16mo, 75 cents. Handbook of American Authors. 16mo, 75 cents. Louis Agassiz. Methods of Study in Natural History. Illus. 16mo, $1.50. Geological Sketches. Series I. and II., each 16mo, $1.50. A Journey in Brazil. Illustrated. 8vo, $5.00. Thomas Bailey Aldrich. Story of a Bad Boy. Illustrated. 12mo, $1.50. Marjorie Daw and Other People. 12mo, $1.50. Prudence Palfrey. 12mo, $1.50. The Queen of Sheba. 16mo, $1.50. The Stillwater Tragedy. 12mo, $1.50. From Ponkapog to Pesth. 16mo, $1.25. Cloth of Gold and Other Poems. 12mo, $1.50. Flower and Thorn. Later Poems. 12mo, $1.25. Poems, Complete. Illustrated. 8vo, $5.00. Mercedes, and Later Lyrics. Crown 8vo, $1.25. American Commonwealths. Virginia. By John Esten Cooke. Oregon. By William Barrows. (_In Preparation._) South Carolina. By Hon. W. H. Trescot. Kentucky. By N. S. Shaler. Maryland. By Wm. Hand Browne. Pennsylvania. By Hon. Wayne MacVeagh.