f work was accomplished, and done in a style
that needed not to be done over again. All which, however, was not
finished without some trace of the strain to which the human instrument
had been put.

The sun had just set, and Esther was standing at the window of her
father's room, looking out to the west. She had been unpacking his
clothes and laying them in the drawers of his bureau and press.

'Miss Esther, you're tired, bad!' said the housekeeper wistfully,
coming up beside her. 'There's all black rings under your eyes; and
your cheeks is pale. You have worked too hard, indeed.'

'Never mind,' said Esther cheerfully; 'that will pass. How pretty it
is, Barker! Look out at that sky.'

'Yes 'm, it's just the colour from that sky that keeps your cheeks from
showin' how white they be. Miss Esther, you've just done too much.'

'Never mind,' said the girl again. 'I wanted to have papa comfortable
before I went to school. I am going to school Monday morning, Barker.
Now I think he'll do very nicely.' She looked round the room, which was
a pattern of neatness and of comfort that was both simple and elegant.
But the housekeeper's face was grave with disapproval and puckered with
lines of care. The wistful expression of anxiety upon it touched Esther.

'Barker,' she said kindly, 'you do not look happy.'

'Me! No, Miss Esther, it is which I do not expect to look.'

'Why not?'

'Mum, things is not accordin' in this world.'

'I think you are mistaken. Do you know who the happy people are?'

'Indeed, Miss Esther, I think they're the blessed ones that has gone
clean away from the earth.'

'Oh no! I mean, people that are happy now and happy here, Barker.'

'I am sure and I don't know, Miss Esther; if it wouldn't be little
children,--which is, them that is too young to know what the world is
like. I do suppose they are happy.'

'Don't you know, the Bible says some other people are happy?'

'The Bible!'

Mrs. Barker stared, open-mouthed, at the face before her. Esther had
sat down by the window, where the glow from the west was upon it, like
a glory round the head of a young saint; and the evening sky was not
more serene, nor reflected more surely a hidden light than did the
beautiful eyes. Mrs. Barker gazed, and could not bring out another word.

'You read your Bible, don't you?'

'Yes 'm, in course; which it isn't very often; but in course I reads
it.'

'Don't you know what it says about happy people?'

'In Pa