e,' she says, 'I can git work;' she says thar' ain't nobody
here cares for her but me. 'And it's only a trouble to you, mother,' she
says; 'and maybe, I shan't never come back again.' If you could 'a' seen
how she looked. Oh, my God!" As the poor woman held her hands to her
face, I saw the tears springing out between her fingers. "There's nobody
knows how I feel this night! She wa'n't a bad girl, my Becky wa'n't. She
was deceived, but it'll make her bad, everybody turnin' agin her so--and
that Jane Meredith, she was sech a wild girl! Oh, I'm afeard! I'm
afeard!"

"But we'll have Becky back again, Mrs. Weir," I said, intensely relieved,
even at this state of things; "and, more than that, we shall see her very
happy yet. I will write to her, myself, to-night."

"I don't know,"--Aunt Patty shook her head sadly--"she might think I'd
got you to do it. I seen she took it to heart, you're turnin' agin her
so, and I didn't believe you'd 'a' done it if you'd known all. I wanted
to go up and see yer, for I knew you'd soften, but no, she wouldn't let
me. She said she'd never forgive me ef I did. No; she'd think I'd been a
puttin' ye up to it." Aunt Patty dried her tears, helplessly.

"You ought to have come to me!" I exclaimed with grave emphasis; "whether
she wanted you to or not!"

"Perhaps I had, teacher," said Aunt Patty, meekly; "but you couldn't 'a'
gone agin her ef you'd been in my place. She wasn't vexed, teacher, but
she was awful set, and she looked so wore out! I couldn't go agin her."

"All the more reason," I continued, fortifying myself with new
confidence; "why you should have been firm with her. She is not fit to go
off by herself in that way. She's a child! a child! She needs some one to
tell her what to do."

"I know that; that's what worries me!" cried Aunt Patty, bursting into
tears; "but what could I do, teacher? what could I do?"

"Well, never mind," I said, assuming with readiness the attitude of the
consoler; "we will have Becky home again in a very short time. I will
write this evening and if she does not come, why, we shall have to go
after her, that's all!"

This last I was able to utter almost gayly, looking into Aunt Patty's
face.

The woman's poor, worn hand placed in mine, the look of confidence
upturned to me in her tearful eyes, her readiness to forgive, to forget
any resentment which she might have cherished towards me, all touched me
deeply and strengthened me in a sincere determination