Maggie shook her head very dolefully.
"That could never be, mamma; but I will try not to feel too badly about it. But," with a look at her sleeping sister, "I am glad Bessie won't mind it so much as I will. She'll feel very badly to know you're not going to teach us any more, but then she won't care so much about the strange girls and the strange school."
Mrs. Bradford looked troubled. She had not imagined that Maggie thought she meant to send Bessie to school also, and now that she saw this was so, she knew what a blow it would be to the poor child to hear that her sister was not to go.
"My darling," she said, "we do not intend—your father and I—to send Bessie to school this winter. We think her too young, and not strong enough, and that much study would not be good for her."
Poor Maggie! This was more than she had bargained to "bear," the one drop too much in her full cup. She could no longer choke back her tears, but fell into a passion of sobbing and crying which her mother found it impossible for some minutes to quiet. It was only the recollection that her mamma was not to be worried, which at last helped the child to conquer it. And it was Bessie who put her in mind of this; for her sobs had roused her little sister, who, waking and slipping down from the sofa, came running to know what could be the matter with her usually merry, cheerful Maggie.
"Maggie, dear," said the thoughtful Bessie, "I'm very sorry for you, but you know the doctor said mamma was not to have any ercitement or 'sturbance, and I'm 'fraid you're making one for her. I s'pose you forgot."
In another moment Maggie had checked her loud sobs, though the tears would not be controlled just yet; and, looking from her to her mother's anxious face, a new fear came into Bessie's mind.
"Mamma," she said, looking wistfully up at her mother, "is our Father going to make you worse again, and take you away from us after all?"
"No, my darling; I trust not," said Mrs. Bradford. "Maggie's trouble is by no means so great a one as that—is it, dear Maggie? I have just been telling her that she is to go to school this winter, and she is rather distressed; but she will soon feel better about it. She will only be away for two or three hours each day, and will soon be quite accustomed to her new teacher and her classmates, and learn to like them."
Bessie looked very sober, and, after a moment, she said, with a long sigh,—