"Tell some more, please," said Christie, when the merriment
subsided, for she felt her spirits rising.
"There's nothin' more to tell, except one thing that prevented my
ever forgittin' the lesson I got then. My little Almiry took cold
that week and pined away rapid. She'd always been so ailin' I never
expected to raise her, and more 'n once in them sinful tempers of
mine I'd thought it would be a mercy ef she was took out of her
pain. But when I laid away that patient, sufferin' little creeter I
found she was the dearest of 'em all. I most broke my heart to hev
her back, and never, never forgive myself for leavin' her that
time." With trembling lips and full eyes Mrs. Wilkins stopped to
wipe her features generally on Andrew Jackson's pinafore, and heave
a remorseful sigh.
"And this is how you came to be the cheerful, contented woman you
are?" said Christie, hoping to divert the mother's mind from that
too tender memory.
"Yes," she answered, thoughtfully, "I told you Lisha was a smart
man; he give me a good lesson, and it set me to thinkin' serious.
'Pears to me trouble is a kind of mellerin' process, and ef you take
it kindly it doos you good, and you learn to be glad of it.
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