"Aunt Alice might understand—she doesn't care a bit, she's always being cross now. Oh, my darling puppy! It's cruel to take you away!"
As the tears fell fast, recollection came to her. Was there any need to go on crying so? Was not the Comforter close by?
"I don't want to stop crying!" she sobbed to herself. "I've a right to cry. Aunt Alice has made me cry, and she doesn't care a bit. She's horrid and unkind. No, I really don't want the Comforter at all. I want to cry."
And so with more anger than sorrow in her little heart, she sobbed on.
When supper time came, Charity came to hunt for her, and brought her indoors with a tear-stained face.
Aunt Alice took no notice of her unhappiness, but talked very cheerfully about taking them all out on an expedition in a few days' time.
"I have heard of a place where some wild strawberries grow, and we will take our dinner with us and bring home as many as we can carry. I have told Miss Vale that she must give you a whole holiday."
Charity and Hope clapped their hands; but Faith did not even smile. Her Granny spoke to her lovingly before she went to bed, but she made little response. Aunt Alice told her not to be sulky, and that made her feel worse. When she went upstairs to bed she felt she was the most ill-used little girl in all the world. But when she knelt down to say her prayers, better thoughts began to come to her.
"I did think I should never feel unhappy again because of the Comforter," she thought. "I suppose He has gone away quite disgusted with me, I don't feel Him near me now. I just feel angry still, because I'm so disappointed! And I don't care about the strawberries a bit. I wanted the puppy. But nobody cares. Even Charity and Hope, who seemed to want him, have quite forgotten all about him now, and they laugh and talk and think me silly not to laugh too. Oh, please, God, do send the Comforter back. Perhaps He would make me feel good again. I don't feel it now. I'm sorry for being so cross."
Faith was getting rather near comfort now. When once she had owned that she had been in the wrong she began to feel better.