"Dear Mother, do not send us away among strangers!" said she between her sobs! "Let us live and die here with you, and the mothers and sisters we have known so long; you are our only mother on earth, do not send us away from you." The lady was affected even to tears; and it was some moments before she could command her voice to speak. "Dear child, it is not I who send you away!" said she at last. "I have no right to detain you when your father demands your presence. Be calm, my Aimeè! I am not able to bear this agitation;" and indeed her changing color alarmed me. Amabel made a desperate effort to control herself, and succeeded so far as to become quiet, though she could not speak. "I would indeed gladly see you both in the safe shelter of the cloister," continued dear Mother, stroking Amabel's head, as she still knelt beside her; "but even that shelter is not always a protection in these days. But your father has the right to dispose of you, and if he requires that you should return to him, you have no choice but to obey. It is hard for me to part with you, my little ones, but the parting must have come at any rate, since I must soon leave you, even if you did not leave me." "Dear Mother do not say so!" I ventured to say. "We all hope that the change will do you good; everyone says that the new house is in a more healthy situation than this." "I shall remove to another house before that change is made, my child;—even to that house which is not made with hands. But do not let it grieve you over-much. To me it is a joyful prospect, especially as I shall leave the little flock I have ruled so long, in comparative ease and safety. But now listen, my little ones, to the last words I may be able to say to you—for my strength may fail at any time, and I believe my end to be nearer than Father Brousseau thinks." She then proceeded to give us much advice regarding our future conduct—excellent, I am sure, from her own way of looking at things, though some of it was quite impossible to any one living in the world. But most of it was very good, and has always been of use to me. And I may say here, that since I have myself had the ordering of a family of young people, I have found the advantage of many things I learned under our dear mother's rule—such as the habit of doing everything in the exact time of it, and not letting one duty, as it were, tread on the heels of another. At St. Jean, when the bell struck the hour of recreation, all work must be dropped on the instant; and the same was true of our play. One might think this would be often very inconvenient, but knowing that it must be so, one learned to make one's arrangements accordingly, and thus much time was saved.