THE DEAD HARE
I was afraid she would really make herself ill: still I thought it best to let her weep away the first sharp agony of grief: and, after a few minutes, the sobbing gradually ceased, and Sylvie rose to her feet, and looked calmly at me, though tears were still streaming down her cheeks.
I did not dare to speak again, just yet; but simply held out my hand to her, that we might quit the melancholy spot.
“Yes, I’ll come now,” she said. Very reverently she kneeled down, and kissed the dead hare; then rose and gave me her hand, and we moved on in silence.
A child’s sorrow is violent, but short; and it was almost in her usual voice that she said, after a minute, “Oh stop, stop! Here are some lovely blackberries!”
We filled our hands with fruit, and returned in all haste to where the Professor and Bruno were seated on a bank, awaiting our return.
Just before we came within hearing-distance, Sylvie checked me. “Please don’t tell Bruno about the hare!” she said.
“Very well, my child. But why not?”
Tears again glittered in those sweet eyes, and she turned her head away, so that I could scarcely hear her reply. “He’s—he’s very fond of gentle creatures, you know. And he’d—he’d be so sorry! I don’t want him to be made sorry.”
“And your agony of sorrow is to count for nothing, then, sweet unselfish child!” I thought to myself. But no more was said till we had reached our friends; and Bruno was far too much engrossed, in the feast we had brought him, to take any notice of Sylvie’s unusually grave manner.