"Good boy! I 'm glad he's gone," said Amy, with an
approving smile; the next minute her face fell as she glanced
about the empty room, adding, with an involuntary sigh, --
"Yes, I am glad, but how I shall miss him!"

WHEN the first bitterness was over, the family accepted the
inevitable, and tried to bear it cheerfully, helping one another
by the increased affection which comes to bind households
tenderly together in times of trouble. They put away their
grief, and each did his or her part toward making that last
year a happy one.

The pleasantest room in the house was set apart for Beth,
and in it was gathered everything that she most loved,--
flowers, pictures, her piano, the little work-table, and the
beloved pussies. Father's best books found their way there,
mother's easy-chair, Jo's desk, Amy's finest sketches; and every
day Meg brought her babies on a loving pilgrimage, to make
sunshine for Aunty Beth. John quietly set apart a little sum,
that he might enjoy the pleasure of keeping the invalid supplied
with the fruit she loved and longed for; old Hannah never
wearied of concocting dainty dishes to tempt a capricious
appetite, dropping tears as she worked; and from across the
sea came little gifts and cheerful letters, seeming to bring
breaths of warmth and fragrance from lands that know no
winter.

Here, cherished like a household saint in its shrine, sat Beth,
tranquil and busy as ever; for nothing could change the sweet,
unselfish nature, and even while preparing to leave life, she tried
to make it happier for those who should remain behind. The
feeble fingers were never idle, and one of her pleasures was
to make little things for the school-children daily passing to

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