"Was it good for Winny, then, to be ill?" asked one.
"Yes, dear, it must have been. He had some work for Winny to do that nobody could do so well, and this being so, he gives her pleasures that we know nothing of. It is always so, if people would only believe it and in God's fairness to all his children. But instead of this, we worry and fume, and think if we were only in other circumstances, we should be happier and more useful."
By such talks as these, Winny became the best known girl in the class, although she had not left the little back room for more than a year.
[CHAPTER IV.]
WHAT PASSION DID.
BROWN came to the Chaplin's room the next day in obedience to his daughter's commands, but looking as sheepish as a schoolboy as he came in.
Winny, however, only thought of amusing and interesting her strange guest, and the book she had to read was just the one she thought would be likely to please him. And so with a pleasant nod, she said: "I am glad you have come, Mr. Brown, for I have got a book of travels this week, and you will be sure to like that."
Mrs. Chaplin asked after his foot, and heard that Annie had faithfully carried out her directions and that it was much easier to-day.
The big burly fellow looked in a half shy fashion at the frail little invalid as he took his seat in the arm-chair. But there was no more talking for the next hour, for Winny began reading, and Brown sat and listened in open-eyed wonder at the marvels told of in the book. Never had an afternoon passed so quickly, and when Letty pushed the door open and put her head inside, no one could believe that school was really over, but thought she must have come home before the proper time.
Brown went to his own room then, thanking Winny so gratefully for her reading, that she invited him to come again the next day if he liked.