CHAPTER VI.
ROSY FRANCES EASTMAN MARY.
Prudy had enjoyed a great many rides in Susy's beautiful sleigh; but now the doctor forbade her going out, except for very short distances, and even then, he said, she must sit in her mother's lap.

He wanted her to lie down nearly all the time, and keep very quiet.
At first, Mrs.Parlin wondered how it would be possible to keep such a restless child quiet; but she found, as time passed, and the disease made progress, that poor little Prudy was only too glad to lie still.
Every motion seemed to hurt her, and sometimes she cried if any one even jarred the sofa suddenly.
These were dark days for everybody in the house.

Susy, who was thoughtful beyond her years, suffered terribly from anxiety about her little sister.

More than that, she suffered from remorse.
"O, grandma Read," said she one evening, as she sat looking up at the solemn, shining stars, with overflowing eyes--"O, grandma!" The words came from the depths of a troubled heart.

"I may live to be real old; but I never shall be happy again! I can't, for, if it hadn't been for me?
Prudy would be running round the house as well as ever!" Mrs.Read had a gentle, soothing voice.