No answer. She threw open the blind in the entry, that the light might stream into the closet. There lay the child in strong convulsions. Timmins knew she risked nothing in calling Mrs. Markham now. "Come quick--quick--she is dying!" "Pshaw! only a trick," said Mrs. Markham, more nervous than she chose to acknowledge, as she consulted her watch and thought of the visitor she was expecting. "Take her up, Timmins," said she, after satisfying herself the child was senseless, "take her into my room, and put her on the bed." "Gracious! how can I?" asked Timmins, looking with dismay at the blood flowing profusely from a wound in the temple, occasioned by her fall; "she looks so dreadful, Mrs. Markham." "Fool!" exclaimed that lady, as she snatched up the little sufferer in her arms, and walked rapidly through the entry. "That's the door bell, Timmins; that is Mr. Balch; tell him I will be there directly--mind--not a word about the child, as you value your place. I have not forgotten that brown soap business." The cowed Timmins retired as she was bid; and Mrs. Markham, laying the insensible child on the bed, closed the door of her room and applied the proper restoratives; for her position involved some little knowledge of the healing art. After a while, Rose opened her eyes, but as suddenly closed them again, as they revealed the form of her persecutor. "_You_ can attend to her now," said Mrs. Markham to Timmins, about half an hour after, as she went down to receive Mr. Balch. Timmins walked about the room uneasily, for Rose's ghastly face distressed her. "If she would only speak, or open her eyes!" but the child did neither. Timmins coughed and hemmed, but Rose did not seem to notice it; at last, going up to the bed-side, she passed her hand over her forehead. "Don't," whispered Rose, glancing round the room as if afraid of seeing Mrs. Markham; "don't try to make me well, I want to die." "Oh, no, you don't," exclaimed Timmins, more frightened than ever; "that's awful--you won't go to Heaven, if you talk that way." "Won't I?" asked the child; "won't I go to Heaven and be with my mother?" "No," said Timmins, oracularly; "no--in course you won't; all of us has to wait till we are sent for; we can't, none of us, hurry the time, or put it off, nuther, when it comes." "When will my time come?" asked Rose, sadly. "Lor'! how you talk--don't go on that way; you've got a while to live yet; you are nothing but a baby." "Shall I always live here?" asked Rose, looking round again, as if in fear of Mrs. Markham. "You'll live here till you are bound out, I reckon." "What's that?" asked Rose, innocently. "Wall, I never!" exclaimed Timmins; "haven't you never heern about being bound out?" "No," answered Rose, a little ashamed of her ignorance. "Wall, the upshot of it is, that you are sent away to live with any body that Mrs. Markham and the committee say, and work for them just as long as they tell you, for your meat, and drink, and clothing."