It seems as if half
of the family were gone."
"Just what I've said twenty times to-day," remarked his wife.
"Nobody knows how much a child is to them till they lose it."
"Not lose it, mother," said Jack, who had been sitting in a silence
unusual for him."
"I didn't mean to say that," said Mrs. Crump. "I meant till they
were gone away for a time."
"When you spoke of losing," said Jack, "it made me feel just as Ida
wasn't coming back."
"I don't know how it is," said his mother, thoughtfully, "but that's
just the feeling I've had several times to-day. I've felt just as if
something or other would happen so that Ida wouldn't come back."
"That is only because she has never been away before," said the
cooper, cheerfully. "It isn't best to borrow trouble; we shall have
enough of it without."
"You never said a truer word, brother," said Rachel, lugubriously.
"'Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.' This world is a
vale of tears. Folks may try and try to be happy, but that isn't
what they're sent here for."
"Now that's where I differ from you," said the cooper,
good-humoredly, "just as there are many more pleasant than stormy
days, so I believe that there is much more of brightness than shadow
in this life of ours, if we would only see it."
"I can't see it," said Rachel, shaking her head very decidedly.
Pages:
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80