Year: 1870

Weayers around her. That night she


slept but little, for her heart was away
of home, yes, up at the castle, and il


Lili's room. She wanted to go to Lii


and to take care OF her. if she could
She wrote to her father, asking him fol
the privilege Of returning home, and
nursing Lii, for she felt that she could
do her some good. The old miller
thought the matter over, paid = littlt
visit to the baron and his wife, and told
them what his daughter wished. They
had almost forgotten little Liese, fol-
she was poor, and it was several years
since they had seen her. But all their
reeollections of her were very pleasant,
and therefore they welcomed the propo-
sition with JOY.


| They then asked Lii what she
thought about it, and though she was
silent for moment, they saw the tears
stealing to her eyes-she had not for
gotten the little Liese of former years.
The baron promised to pay all the ex-
genses that might be necessary for
Liese 10 leave the factory, and ar
ranged that she should spend several
months, if need be, in his castle, nurs-
ing his daughter.


When the miller wrote 10 Liese, she
was perfectly delighted that her pre-
posal had been accepted, and never
did the old stsge-coach carry happier
heart than it did on the morning she
left Chemnitz on her way home, and to
Lili's bedside.


The meeting between the girls was
pleasant, very pleasant, though Lii
was very weak, and Liese could not
have told who it was if she had seen
her anywhere else She attended fsith-
fully at her bedside, slept in the same
room with her, was up at all hours of
the night, and gave her medicine, and
attended TO every want. By and by
Lii began to recover, but the doctor
noticed one day thai her eyes were very
weak, and, after few days, that they
grew much worse. She could not bear
the least light, and while her body was
getting stronger all the time, her eyes
were becoming weaker, and the doctor
was very fearful that she might be
blind. And so it was-Lili the beauti-
full daughter of the baron, became to-
tally blind. AS soon as she was strong
enough to go out and walk about, she
always needed somebody 10 take her
by the hand; and who should do this
but Liese? She became very much at
tached to Liese again, as one might
suppose; for nobody, not even her own
mother could take such care Of her as
the miller's daughter.


1t was now out of all question for
Liese to go back again to the factory
in Chemnitz, and the baron made ar
rangements for her to become q per-
manent member of his family, to take
care of his Lii, and to be her constant
attendant. One day Lii told Liese
how she had become very much
ashamed of associating with poor peo-
pie, and that therefore she had ceased
to correspond with her. But now, as
soon as affliction had come upon her,
she found that the friend of her early
youth was a true friend indeed, and
one who did not forget her.


Year after year passed by, and yet
poor Lii never recovered her sight
She had always been very fond Of
reading, but now could not read any
more. Liese, the poor miller's daugh
ter, whom she had once despised, but
who had now come to nurse her, and
be her lifelong friend, read TO her,
talked with her, and walked with her,
and proved a friend indeed. But of
all the acquaintance which Lii had
made in the boarding-school in Dres-
den, not one ever came to see her when
she was sick, and, after she had be-
come blind, not a single one ever wrote
to her. Were not the words which
she had Liese write for her one day in
journal, which Liese kept for her,
very true: "My own experience has
taught me, Lii. the blind daughter of
Baron l., that a poor but sincere
friend is rorth more than thousand
proud bm false Ones.'