"Oh dear!" exclaimed Ella, "that's too bad. How could you let her go away?"
For a moment the boy ceased his employment, raised his tear-dimmed eyes to the clear sky, then brushed away the glistening drops, and resumed his work. Presently, in a subdued voice, he replied, "God gave her to us, and he had a right to take her again, you know. Mother cried dreadfully; but she said, 'God knows what is best.' I miss her every night," said the boy, choking back his tears, "I loved her so dearly."
"Shall you go away when you've finished the peas?" asked Ella, anxious to turn from so painful a subject.
"Oh no! I shall do the beans next. See, I'm almost done."
"Why! won't you be tired?"
"No indeed. I have a great mind to tell you my secret."
The child filled the air with her musical laugh. "I do like to hear secrets," she said.
"Well, I'm trying to work real hard, because I want to buy mother a straw bonnet, and some pretty ribbon to put on it. It will be so nice to wear to church, you know." At this moment a voice in the hall called, "Ella! Ella!" and the child tripped away.
It seemed to Harrison as if the sun had gone behind a cloud when her laughing face disappeared from the railing; but he entered with renewed zeal into his work, saying to himself, "I wish mother could see her; she's a dear little thing!"