At last with a vague presentiment that all was not right, he raised the latch and entered, but instantly started back in astonishment at the scene before him.

On the little trundlebed lay Frank, cold and dead, and near him in the same long dreamless sleep was his mother, while between them, with one arm thrown lovingly across her brother's neck, and her cheek pressed against his, lay Mary--her eyelids moist with the tears which, though sleeping she still shed.

On the other side of Frank and nestled so closely to him that her warm breath lifted the brown curls from his brow, was Ella.

But there were no tear stains on her face, for she did not yet know how bereaved she was.
For a moment Billy stood irresolute, and then as Mary moved uneasily in her slumbers, he advanced a step or two towards her.

The noise aroused her, and instantly remembering and comprehending the whole, she threw herself with a bitter cry into Billy's extended arms, as if he alone were all the protector she now had in the wide, wide world.
Ere long Ella too awoke, and the noisy outburst which followed the knowledge of her loss, made Mary still the agony of her own heart in order to soothe the more violent grief of her excitable sister.
There was a stir in the cradle, and with a faint cry the baby Alice awoke and stretched her hands towards Mary who, with all a mother's care took the child upon her lap and fed her from the milk which was still standing in the broken pitcher.