Miss Gray turned a-way, when all at once she heard a laugh be-hind her.
She looked back, and there were the laugh-ing fa-ces of Bell and Car-rie.
They had been on the cart, all hid-den un-der the hay in or-der to play
a lit-tle joke on Miss Gray. Then they scram-bled down, and came run-ning
to her.

The man on the cart smiled to see their fun. Then he said sadly, "Dear me,
I wish my lit-tle lass could run a-bout like that."

[Illustration]

"Is she ill?" asked Car-rie.

"Yes," said the man; "but she is get-ting bet-ter now."

"We'll ask mam-ma to take us to see her," said Bell.

The ver-y next day their mam-ma did take them. They found Ruth sit-ting
pil-lowed up in a chair, ver-y pale and white. Bell had picked her a
bunch of flow-ers, which she seemed ver-y glad to get; and the three
girls soon be-came good friends. Car-ree found a lit-tle gray kitten
with which she played.

The vis-it seemed to do Ruth a great deal of good; for a pink flush came
in her cheeks, and she e-ven laughed, which her moth-er said she had not
done before for weeks.

They came a-gain the ver-y next day. Miss Gray was with them, and car-ried
a bas-ket on her arm in which were some dain-ties to tempt the sick girl's
ap-pe-tite. She was glad to see them, and told them they should have the