She sobbed so bitterly that her mother looked alarmed. “Comfort, look here; is there anything else the matter?” she asked, suddenly; and she put her hand on Comfort's shoulder.
“My tooth aches dreadfully—oh!” Comfort wailed.
“If your tooth aches so bad as all that, you'd better go to Dr. Hutchins in the morning and have it out,” said her mother. “Now you'd better lie still and try to go to sleep, or you'll be sick.”
Comfort's sobs followed her mother all the way downstairs. “Don't you cry so another minute, or you'll get so nervous you'll be sick,” Mrs. Pease called back; but she sat down and cried awhile herself after she returned to the sitting-room.
Poor Comfort stifled her sobs under the patchwork quilt, but she could not stop crying for a long time, and she slept very little that night. When she did she dreamed that she had found the ring, but had to wear it around her aching tooth for a punishment, and the tooth was growing larger and larger, and the ring painfully tighter and tighter.
She looked so wan and ill the next morning that her mother told her she need not go to school. But Comfort begged hard to go, and said she did not feel sick; her tooth was better.
“Well, mind you get Miss Hanks to excuse you, and come home, if your tooth aches again,” said her mother.
“Yes, ma'am,” replied Comfort.
When the door shut behind Comfort her Grandmother Atkins looked at her mother. “Em'ly,” said she, “I don't believe you can carry it out; she'll be sick.”
“I'm dreadfully afraid she will,” returned Comfort's mother.