Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/167

Rh him to us. She went away with a light heart, leading him by the hand, delighted at finding her hopes realized.

We were naturally interested in the little girl, and when she was absent from school for several days through sickness, we went to see her. We found the family living in a street near us, in a little hovel with mud-walls and a thatched roof of palm-leaves. Her father was out of employment, and her mother, a coarse, complaining woman, showed us the handful of rice she had received for a day's labour. Sevaley came out of the house, looking thin and weak, but greatly pleased to see the minister and the lady. After some conversation, we left the mother, promising to aid them. We sent Sevaley little comforts from time to time by the catechist, (native preacher,) who said that “she spoke very well.”

Returning one morning from the examination of a boys' school, I found little Sevaley lying upon a mat that had been spread for her on our verandah, with Mrs. D. seated beside her making her a jacket. She was now much swollen with dropsy, and very weak; she also coughed very badly. When asked whether she