And Maggie to have a
flower-bed on your front lawn! They won't let her touch a plant, at our
cottage, though she understands gardening so thoroughly. She won't
sleep a wink to-night, if I tell her, and I had better keep that for the
morning. Poor children! They have had a hard time of it; but they have
come out like pure gold from the fire--I mean as many of them as can use
their legs. But to be on horseback--what will Bob say?"
"You must have met with very little kindness, Mrs. Stubbard, to attach
any importance to such mere trifles. It makes me blush to think that
there can be a spot in England where such children as yours could pass
unnoticed. It is not a question of religious feeling only. Far from
it; in fact, quite the opposite; though my husband, of course, is quite
right in insisting that all our opinions and actions must be referred
to that one standard. But I look at things also from a motherly point
of view, because I have suffered such sad trials. Three dear ones in the
churchyard, and the dearest of all--the Almighty only knows where he is.
Sometimes it is more than I can bear, to live on in this dark and most
dreadful uncertainty. My medical man has forbidden me to speak of it.
But how can he know what it is to be a mother? But hush! Or darling
Faith may hear me. Sometimes I lose all self-command."
Mrs. Twemlow's eyes were in need of wiping, and stout Mrs. Stubbard's
in the same condition.
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