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 down near the stove, bowing her face on her hands.

When Susan returned to the apartment, the invalid's eyes were roaming from one object to another, in a strange, bewildered manner. She did not seem to notice her daughter at first, nor did she make any response until her name had been spoken several times.

"What is the matter, mother?" said the daughter, anxiously; "you see me, don't you, and hear my voice?"

"Nattie, don't crack filberts with your teeth," said the invalid. "I've told you not to do it, many times."

Susan thought best to humor this fancy, and responded, in a voice as like Nattie's as she could assume:

"Well, I won't, mother."

But this answer was so unlike any that Nattie would have made, that the sick woman looked up quickly, and recognized her eldest daughter.