"I believe she would," said the wounded man, tremulously. "I would like to go to her, and ever since I came away I have meant to go as soon as I could get in the way of doing better. But I get worse all the time. I'll soon be dead now, and I don't care how soon. The sooner the better;" and he sighed wearily. Patty had the tact not to contradict him. "Did your mother ever read to you?" she asked. "Yes; she used to read the Bible on Sundays and I used to run away to keep from hearing it. I'd give everything to hear her read now." "Shall I read to you?" "If you please." "Shall I read your mother's favorite chapter?" said Patty. "How do you know which that is?--I don't!" "Don't you think one woman knows how another woman feels?" asked Patty. And she sat by the little four-light window and took out her pocket Testament and read the three immortal parables in the fifteenth of Luke. The man's curiosity was now wide awake; he listened to the story of the sheep lost and found, but when Patty glanced at his face, it was unsatisfied; he hearkened to the story of the coin that was lost and found, and still he looked at her with faint eagerness, as if trying to guess why she should call that his mother's favorite chapter. Then she read slowly, and with sincere emotion, that truest of fictions, the tale of the prodigal son and his hunger, and his good resolution, and his tattered return, and the old father's joy. And when she looked up, his eyes tightly closed could not hide his tears. "Do you think that is her favorite chapter?" he asked. "Of course it must be," said Patty, conclusively. "And you'll notice that this prodigal son didn't wait to make himself better, or even until he could get a new suit of clothes." The sick man said nothing. The raw-boned Mrs. Barkins came to the door at that moment and said: "The doctor's gal's out yer and want's to see you." "You won't go away yet?" asked the patient, anxiously. "I'll stay," said Patty, as she left the room. Nettie, with her fresh face and dimpled cheeks, was standing timidly at the outside door. Patty took the jelly from her hand and sent a note to the Doctor: "The patient is doing well every way, and I am in the safest place in the world--doing my duty." And when the doctor read it he said, in his nervously abrupt fashion: "Perfect angel!" _CHAPTER XXIX._ PATTY'S JOURNEY.