Mary smiled encouragingly. "I think," she said, "you have governed yourself bravely of late."
"No, I haven't! Only yesterday I was real downright angry with Margaret when she wouldn't iron my white apron in season for me to wear it to school. You know all our class had aprons alike with pockets, and all braided the same pattern; and we had agreed to wear them together." Ellen's face flushed as she recalled her disappointment. "Yes, I was really angry, and felt like calling her a hateful, disobliging old girl!"
"But, instead of that, you controlled yourself and returned good for evil, by giving up a pleasant walk, to write a letter for her to her aged mother in Ireland. Do you think you would have done that when you first came here? Or, could you have done so now if the good Spirit had not aided you?"
Ellen laughed through her tears, saying,—
"I think I should once have scratched her face for her; but, Mary, do Christians ever feel angry? I never saw you, nor aunt, nor uncle vexed."
"You make me ashamed of my short-comings," said Mary, blushing. "I think as you have acknowledged your fault so freely, I must step into the confessional box, and say that I overheard your talk with Margaret about the apron, and after you left, reproved her sharply for disappointing you. I think she did very wrong; if I had known about it in season, I would have ironed it for you. I have heard mother say that I had naturally a passionate temper; but as I was taught to curb it from my earliest infancy, it has become easy to do so. You deserve far more credit than I do."
The tidings of Joseph's death came at last.
Mr. Saunders wrote his sister, who broke the sad intelligence to her niece in as cautious a manner as possible. Though the event had been expected for days, yet Ellen wept as if wholly unprepared for it.
"Is he happy now? Has he joined mother in heaven?" were questions ever recurring for the next few days.
Mrs. Collins wept with her niece, begging her to leave her dear brother where she had left herself,—in the hands of a merciful and forgiving God.