"I don't know," said Fleda, faintly; "he is not ill, but he never was very strong, and he exposes himself now, I know, in a way he ought not. I am sorry I have just come and troubled you with all this now, aunt Miriam," she said, after a little pause; "I shall feel better by and by I don't very often get such a fit."
"My dear little Fleda!" and there was unspeakable tenderness in the old lady's voice, as she came up, and drew Fleda's head again to rest upon her "I would not let a rough wind touch thee if I had the holding of it. But we may be glad the arranging of things is not in my hand I should be a poor friend after all, for I do not know what is best. Canst thou trust Him who does know, my child?"
"I do, aunt Miriam oh, I do," said Fleda, burying her face in her bosom "I don't often feel so as I did to-day."
"There comes not a cloud that its shadow is not wanted," said aunt Miriam. "I cannot see why, but it is that thou mayest bloom the brighter, my dear one."
"I know it" Fleda's words were hardly audible "I will try."
"Remember his own message to every one under a cloud 'Cast all thy care upon him, for he careth for thee;' thou mayest keep none of it; and then the peace that passeth understanding shall keep thee. 'So he giveth his beloved sleep.' "
Fleda wept for a minute on the old lady's neck, and then she looked up, dried her tears, and sat down with a face greatly quieted and lightened of its burden, while aunt Miriam once more went back to her work. The one wrought and the other looked on in silence.
The cruller were all done at last the great bread-trough was filled and set away the remnant of the fat was carefully disposed of, and aunt Miriam's handmaid was called in to "take the watch." She herself and her visitor adjourned to the sitting-room.
"Well," said Fleda., in a tone again steady and clear, "I must go home to see about getting up a dinner. I am the greatest hand at making something out of nothing, aunt Miriam, that ever you saw. There is nothing like practice. I only wish the man uncle Orrin talks about would come along once in a while."
"Who was that?" said aunt Miriam.