, "My helpful little comfort." These sweet words were
the one thing which made it seem possible to live just then. All her
life long they came back to Eyebright like the sound of music, and
when the thought of her childish faults gave her pain, these words,
which carried full forgiveness of the faults, soothed and consoled
her. After a while, as she grew older, she learned to feel that mamma
in heaven knew much better than mamma on earth could, how much her
little daughter really had loved her, and how it grieved her now to
remember that ever she should have been impatient or unkind.

But this was not for a long time afterward, and meanwhile her chief
pleasure was in remembering, that, for all her naughtiness, mamma had
kissed her and called her "a comfort" before she died.

After the funeral, Wealthy opened the blinds, which had been kept
tight shut till then, and life returned to its usual course.
Breakfast, dinner, and supper appeared regularly on the table, papa
went again to to the mill, and Eyebright to school. She felt shy and
strange at first, and the children were shy of her, because of her
black alpaca frock, which impressed their imaginations a good deal.
This wore off as the frock wore out, and by the time that Eyebright
had ripped out half the gathers of the waist and torn a hole in the
sleeve, which was pretty soon, the alpaca lost its awfulness in their
eyes, and had become as any common dress. In the course of a week or
two, Eyebright found herself studying, playing, and walking at recess
with Bessie, quite in the old way. But all the while she was conscious
of a change, and a feeling which she fought with, but could not get
rid of, that things were not, nor ever could be, as they had been
before this interruption came.

Home was changed and her father was changed. Eyebright was no longer
careless or unobservant, as before her mother's death, and she noticed
how fast papa's hair was turning gray, and how deep and careworn the
lines about his mouth and eyes had become. He did not seem to gain in
cheerfulness as time went on, but, if any thing, to look more sad and
troubled; and he spent much of his time at the cherry-wood desk
calculating and doing sums and poring over account-books. Eyebright
noticed all these little things, she had learned to use her eyes now,
and though nobody said any thing about it, she felt sure that papa was
worried about something, and in need of comfort.

She used to come ear