"It is right to be smart, Winnie, if we aren't too smart."
"I wish I could be always just right, mamma."
"The rightest thing will be for you to go to sleep," said her mother, kissing her eyes and cheeks. "I'll be through my work directly and then you shall sit in my lap and rest — I don't want to sew to-night. Winnie, the good Shepherd will gather my little lamb with his arm and carry her in his bosom, if she minds his voice; and then he will bring her by and by where she shall walk with him in white, and there will be no spots on the white any more."
"I know. Make haste, mother, and let us sit down together and talk."
So they did, with Asahel at their feet; but they didn't talk much. They kept each other silent and soft companionship, till Winifred's breathing told that she had lost her troubles in sleep on her mother's bosom.
"Poor little soul! she takes it hard," said Karen. "She's 'most as old as her mother now."
"You must get her to play with you, Asahel, as much as you can," Mrs. Landholm said in a whisper.
"Why mamma? aint she well?"
"I don't know — I'm afraid she wont keep so."
"She's too good to be well," said Karen.