hey didn't believe I've got one."

"Let them believe it or not, just as they have a mind to," said her
mother.

"They think I'm telling stories."

"What have you been telling about your ring in school for, when you
ought to have been studying? Now, Comfort, I can't have you standing
there teasing me any longer. I've got to get these biscuits into the
oven; they must have some supper before they go home. You go right
out and set the table. Get the clean table-cloth out of the drawer,
and you may put on the best knives and forks. Not another word. You
can't wear that gold ring until your hand grows to it, and that
settles it."

Comfort went out and set the table, but she looked so dejected that
the company all noticed it. She could not eat any of the hot biscuits
when they sat down to supper, and she did not eat much of the company
cake. "You don't feel sick, do you, child?" asked her grandmother,
anxiously.

"No, ma'am," replied Comfort, and she swallowed a big lump in her
throat.

"She ain't sick," said her mother, severely. "She's fretting because
she can't wear her gold ring to school."

"O Comfort, you must wait till your hand grows to it," said her Aunt
Susan.

"Yes, of course she must," said her Uncle Ebenezer.

"Eat your supper, and your hand will grow to it before long," said
her father, who, left to himself, would have let Comfort wear the
ring.

"It wouldn't do for you to wear that ring and lose it. It's real
gold," said her grandmother. "Have another piece of the sweet-cake."

But Comfort wanted no more sweet-cake. She put both hands to her face
and wept, and her mother sent her promptly out of the room and to
bed. Comfort lay there and sobbed, and heard her Uncle Ebenezer's
covered wagon roll out of the yard, and sobbed again. Then she fell
asleep, and did not know it when her mother and grandmother came in
and looked at her and kissed her.

"I'm sorry she feels so bad," said Comfort's mother, "but I can't let
her wear that ring."

"No, you can't," said her grandmother. And they went out shading the
candle.

Comfort said no more about the ring the next morning. She knew her
mother too well. She did not eat much breakfast, and crept off
miserably to school at a quarter past eight, and she had another
unhappy day. Nobody had forgotten about the gold ring. She was teased
about it at every opportunity. "Why didn't you wear that handsome
gold ring?" asked the big girl with red cheeks, until po