"Oh, hang the infection!" exclaimed Tom, angrily. "I don't mean to be shut up like a wild beast in a cage." And the boy looked so fierce as he said this that he seemed to have enough of the wild beast about him to render the cage a somewhat desirable thing. "No one will guess that we have had any fever at all," observed Jessy, who, while better tempered than her brother, was less straightforward and open. "See—there are no marks left; and if you are not so cross as to tell, no one will know that anything has been the matter with Tom or with me." "Oh, Miss Jessy, your own conscience would know it; your own conscience would whisper, 'Is it right, for my own selfish pleasure, to run the risk of carrying sickness, and perhaps even death, into some happy home? If I should hear of some poor child catching the fever and dying, could I ever feel happy again?'" Jessy stared at Susan in surprise. The idea of being guided by the secret voice of conscience in her heart was new to the child, who had hitherto cared only to follow self-will. Tom broke out abruptly with the question, "As you make such a mighty fuss about infection, Susan, are you not afraid of catching the fever yourself? I wonder that you don't run away in a fright, like mamma with the baby." "It was your mamma's duty to go; it is my duty to stay," replied the young nursery-maid, with a smile. "I am not in the least afraid, for I trust in God who careth for me." "Do you mean that because you trust in God, He will keep you from catching the fever?" asked Jessy. "I did not mean that," replied Susan. "God sometimes lets His people have troubles, and sickness is often one of them; but He helps and cheers His servants in distress, and brings them out of it at last. God teaches them sweet lessons of patience and hope and faith, so that every tried Christian will be able to say, sooner or later, 'It is good for me that I have been afflicted.' * If we trust in God, King David's beautiful words may be ours, 'I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me;' † for the Lord will either keep trials away, or He will, by His power and love, turn the trials themselves into blessings." * Psalm cxix. 71. † Psalm xxiii. 4. The Fairleys would have cared nothing for teaching on the subject of religion from one whose conduct did not show its power over herself; but Susan lived as she tried to teach the children to live, and therefore her words had some influence. Tom and Jessy could see that she who feared God had no other fear, and that while caring for others, she could, with happy trust, leave the care of herself unto Him. This was the children's first lesson of faith in a watchful Providence.