derstand." Who was there
now to understand? None in the wide world but Uncle Joshua, and from
him she felt as far distant as though he were in another country. She
became in this way, as time went on, more silent, graver, and more what
her cousins called "old-fashioned"; and though at heart she was far more
childlike than they, she went about her work with serious application
like one of twice her years. Mrs Greenways did not disapprove of this,
and though she lost no occasion of impressing upon Lilac her smallness
and uselessness, she soon began to find her valuable in the house: it
was a new thing to have someone there who was steady and thorough in her
work, and might be depended on to do it without constant reproof. She
was satisfied, too, that Lilac had quite got over her grief, and did not
seem to miss her mother so much as might have been expected. It would
be troublesome to see the child fret and pine, and as no sign of this
appeared she concluded it was not there. Mrs Greenways was accustomed
to the sort of sorrow which shows itself in violent tears and
complaints, and she would have been surprised if she could have known
how Lilac's lonely little heart ached sometimes for the sound of her
mother's voice or the sight of her face; how at night, when she was shut
safely into her attic, she would stretch out her arms towards the
cottage on the hill, and long vainly for the days to come back which she
had not loved half well enough while they were passing. But no one knew
this, and amidst the turmoil and bustle of the day no one guessed how
lonely she was or thought of her much in any way. She was only little
Lilac White, an orphan who had been fortunate enough to get a good home.
So she lived her own life, solitary, although surrounded by people; and
while she worked her mind was full of her mother's memory--sometimes she
even seemed to hear her words again, and to see her smile of pleasure
when she had done anything particularly well. She was careful,
therefore, not to relax her efforts in the least, and though she got no
praise for the thoroughness of her work, it was a little bit of comfort
at the end of the day to think that she had "pleased Mother."

It began soon to be a pleasure, too, when work was finished, to go out
amongst the creatures in the farmyard. Here she forgot her troubles and
her loneliness for a little while, and made many satisfactory
friendships in which there were no disappointmen