want.

Your past has been happy. Your future is a bright one, with not a single cloud in your blue, starry sky." "Do you envy me?"

"Certainly not. You are a very good fellow. You deserve it. But I feel that all men should be as happy as you are."

"That is quite impossible, my dear. Religion, history, the very nature of things, teach us that it cannot be. Are you a Socialist, also? Socialism may be theoretically right, but it is a utopia. Aegri somnia vana!”

"I do not know, Will. That is the way many people speak who have never read a serious socialistic book, who have no good arguments to advance, who have never been in close contact with human misery, or who have hearts of stone. That is the way 'beati gaudentes' speak. Now, I do not want to discuss these matters, as I do not think you are ready for it, and a theoretical discussion about Socialism is of no use. Very often a discussion carried on in such a way leaves each certain as to the truth of his first convictions. Men readily make errors when they attempt to talk about subjects upon which they are not well informed."

"Yes, Doctor, I must confess that I have never paid any serious attention to socialistic doctrines. I have read no books on the subject, and the little I do know I have picked up from newspaper articles opposed to it. Therefore, I could not enter into any serious discussion of it.”

"If all men were as sincere as you are, and would acknowledge their ignorance, and with unprejudiced eye look at the matter, Socialism could be realized in a very short time. Will, you have always been pleased to favor me.” "Of course, you are one of my best friends. I love you so that I do not think I could refuse you anything."

"I thank you with all my heart. In our prevailing so

ciety nothing is more common than the word friendship and nothing more rare than the thing itself. When we have the good luck to have a true friend it is well to take as great care of him as we would of a most precious jewel. Now I will ask a favor of you."

"What can I do for you?"

"I want you to spend two days with me."

"Is that all you want?"

"Nothing more."

"Then I am at your disposal."

"Let us go."

"Where shall it be?

The weather is really beautiful.

The cloudless sky is so blue as to remind one of Italy. Flowers are blooming, and the gentle winds, through the rustling leaves, seem to sweetly caress the roses."

"It would be a pleasure if we could take a walk in Audubon Park, but, to my regret, I cannot, for we must go elsewhere. As you have already accepted, upon no conditions, you must follow me. You will see sights which you have never thought could possibly be in New Orleans." "All right. You are getting a little bit mysterious, and consequently interesting. I am ready."

"Let us then take the North Rampart car."

CHAPTER II.

It was nine o'clock when we alighted from the car and started toward a house which bore a ruinous appearance. "Are you going to see a patient?"

"Yes."

"Well, go. I will stay here, and wait for you." "No, come in with me."

"What for? I am not a physician."

"It does not matter. Come in. I shall make my patients believe that you are one, and one of the best. So you can follow me, and see with your own eyes what words cannot make you understand so fully. Are not the eyes the straight and right way to the heart?"

"I begin to understand now. All right. Come on."

I knocked at the door, and suddenly a poor woman appeared before us, saying, with a breath of relief:

"Oh, Doctor Nelli! I have waited so long for you. How waiting moments seem endless! If you. only could guess what a night I have passed! Think of it, seeing my poor little one dying, and alone, without being able to give him any help, and with no one to send for you! Blow after blow has fallen on me, and it seems that there is nothing to be spared me in this world. God, what have I done to you? Last year my husband lost his life after a long and painful disease. Am I not tormented enough, helpless woman, with five children, who I, alone, must support and care for? Why do you want to increase my misery?" She cried out in her agony, and began to shed tears.

“Will,” said I, “the sorrow of this poor mother is so great

that she has not yet noticed you."—"Have courage, poor woman, have courage."

"Have courage!" she repeated, shaking her head. "Have I not had courage enough? But it seems to me that God takes pleasure in worrying the poor."

"Do you see, Will, she thinks it is God who sends her all the evils she is lamenting. So, at least, she will not say, if the poor boy dies, that it was the doctor who killed him. Well, let me attend to the poor little one."

The home was a miserable one. There were but two rooms. One was used for a kitchen and dining room. The other was the general bedroom. One old table, three chairs, and two beds near each other were all the furniture to be seen. A pale, lean-faced chap, only five years old, burning with fever, with a filthy sheet wrapped around him, was lying in one of the beds. Three children were still sleeping in the other. The oldest child, a pretty girl of about ten years, was trying to help her mother.

The atmosphere was oppressive, deprived of sunlight, impregnated with dust, and tainted with foul odors and mephitic gases. I began to examine the boy carefully and found him worse than the day before.

"What is the matter with him?" asked Will.

"It is a very bad case of typhus fever, and now he begins to show signs of one of the worst complications we have to fear. I mean brain fever."-"Madam, why don't you keep the ice-bag on his head? Why don't you open all the windows and let fresh air come in?"

"I don't know who I should listen to. Yesterday, after you left, some neighbors, seeing every window opened, and the ice-bag on the head of my little one, said to me: 'You should take care, the boy may catch cold, and it will make him worse.' Being afraid, I shut the windows and took the ice from his head."

"And you obey your friends, who know nothing about diseases, rather than me? Now, don't you see that he has brain fever complication?"

"Oh! my God! I don't know what I have done. I am crazy, doctor. Don't get angry, please. I will do everything you say now. I will listen to none but you."

"No, it is not with you that I am angry. I know that it is not your fault if you are ignorant. Now, leave the icebag on the boy's head, and don't remove it until I return. Open the windows and let fresh air come in. Your little one will not catch cold. Fill this prescription and give him the medicine as directed."

The poor woman took the prescription, and calling her daughter, said to her: "Go instantly for this medicine; don't go to the druggist you went to yesterday, because he is too expensive, and God knows what sacrifices I have to make to get a little money.'

"What is your business?" asked Will.

"I work, sir, in a cigar factory, and my salary is five dollars a week."

"Do you still go to work, while your little one is sick?"

"Yes, sir; I do. Otherwise who would give me the money to buy medicines and bread, and to pay the rent of this house? Imagine my grief, sir, in being obliged to leave my boy in care of his sister. While I am away, think of the terror and agony of my broken heart."

"Mother's love. Mother's heart. Do we know what it is, Will?" said I.

During the conversation the little ones sleeping in the other bed awakened, and shouted, as with one voice, "Mother! mother!"

"Will, look at those children. They are very pretty, are they not? What shall become of them in the near future? With no one but this poor woman to care for