Katie became no better; but then the doctors said that she did not become any worse, and gave it as their opinion that she ought to recover.

She had youth, they said, on her side; and then her lungs were not affected.

This was the great question which they were all asking of each other continually.

The poor girl lived beneath a stethoscope, and bore all their pokings and tappings with exquisite patience.

She herself believed that she was dying, and so she repeatedly told her mother.