I have done it myself by my own carelessness;" and then she confessed how many times she had deceived her mother, and thoughtlessly exposed her health, even when her lungs and side were throbbing with pain.

"I know you will forgive me," said she, "for most severely have I been punished." Then, as she heard Jenny's voice in the room below, she added, "There is one other thing which I would say to you Ere I die, you must promise that Jenny shall marry William Bender.

He is poor, I know, and so are we, but he has a noble heart, and now for my sake, mother, take back the bitter words you once spoke to Jenny, and say that she may wed him.

She will soon be your only daughter, and why should you destroy her happiness?
Promise me, mother, promise that she shall marry him." Mrs.Lincoln, though poor, was proud and haughty still, and the struggle in her bosom was long and severe, but love for her dying child conquered at last, and to the oft-repeated question, "Promise me, mother, will you not ?" she answered, "Yes, Rose, yes, for your sake I give my consent though nothing else could ever have wrung it from me." "And, mother," continued Rose, "may he not be sent for now?
I cannot be here long, and once more I would see him, and tell him that I gladly claim him as a brother." A brother! How heavily those words smote upon the heart of the sick girl.

Henry was yet away, and though in Jenny's letter Rose herself had once feebly traced the words, "Come, brother,--do come," he still lingered, as if bound by a spell he could not break.