When Mrs. Frazee came back to the room where Annie was still sleeping, and looked into the pale face, she murmured, "If it be thy will, dear Father, spare my child." The possibility of bringing about a removal of her darling into the country seemed as remote as ever. Yet now and then there came the thought, "With God all things are possible!" * * * * * In a pleasant home in the upper part of the city a cheerful group sat at breakfast. "If I go home with uncle Ben, I have ever so much to do to-day," said Ethel Miller, a bright young girl of fifteen. "You girls always have so much to do," replied her brother John, two years younger. "I could get ready to go into the country for a few days in five minutes, but I suppose you will have to spend half a day deciding what to take, and the other half in packing two or three trunks!" he added with a smile. "You are quite mistaken; I am not going to take even one trunk. But I have some calls to make." "Calls!" said uncle Ben, arching his eyebrows. "I supposed that as you were a schoolgirl yet, you were exempt from that form of fashionable nonsense." "Oh! I do not mean fashionable calls," replied Ethel; "but you see I am on the lookout committee, and Mr. Myers told me yesterday that the Frazee girl who has been sick all winter seems to be failing, and I ought to go there before I go away. And there are one or two more on my list who live down that way, so I may as well call on them all while I am about it." "What will you do this morning, Benjamin?" asked Mr. William Miller, Ethel's father. "If Ethel will take me along, I think I will go with her, and on the way back I will drop in at the store and go to lunch with you. And this afternoon I propose to give myself over to John." This arrangement gave general satisfaction, only Mrs. Miller suggested that she, being left out of the plans, should claim the evening for herself. Several things happened to delay Ethel and uncle Ben, so that it was quite a little after noon when they reached the home of the Frazees. Ethel in her new spring suit, with her dainty ways and bright face, was a pleasant sight to the invalid, and uncle Ben seemed to Mrs. Frazee to bring in a whiff of that country air which she had been longing for. It all came about naturally enough. Ethel's inquiries brought out the information that Annie was not gaining and that the doctor had recommended country air. And Mrs. Frazee said, "We have not had time to plan yet, but I hope a way will be opened for her to go, though it seems just now to be impossible." Uncle Ben listened, meantime taking in the barenness of the room as to its furnishings. Presently he asked a few questions, not in any sense obtrusive, but such as a sympathetic stranger might ask if he knew how, and uncle Ben did know how. Then he said, turning to Ethel: "Suppose we take your friend here home with us? There's room enough out there, and your aunt would not let her want for care."