Comfort Pease and her Gold Ring | Page 4

sight. It seemed to her that she must wear that ring to school the next day. She made up her mind that she would ask her mother; but when she got home she found that her Grandmother Atkins had come, and also her Uncle Ebenezer and Aunt Susan. They had driven over from Barre, where they lived, and her grandmother was going to stay and make a little visit; but her uncle and aunt were going home soon, and her mother was hurrying to make some hot biscuits for supper.
So when Comfort came in she stopped short at the sight of the company, and had to kiss them all and answer their questions with shy politeness. Comfort was very fond of her grandmother, but this time she did not feel quite so delighted to see her as usual. As soon as she had got a chance she slipped into the pantry after her mother. "Mother," she whispered, pulling her apron softly, "can't I wear my gold ring to school to-morrow?"
"No, you can't. How many times have I got to tell you?" said her mother, mixing her biscuit dough energetically.
"Please let me, mother. They 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 poor Comfort got nearly distracted. It seemed to her that the time to go home would never come, and as if she could never endure to go to school again. That night she begged her mother to let her stay at home the next day. "No," said her mother; "you've begun to go to school, and you're going to school unless you're sick. Now this evening you had better sit down and write a letter to your Aunt Comfort. It's a long time since you wrote to her."
So Comfort sat down and wrote laboriously a letter to her Aunt Comfort, and thanked her anew, as she always did, for her gold ring and the gold dollar. "I wish to express my thanks again for the beautiful and valuable gifts which you presented me for my name," wrote Comfort, in the little stilted style of the day.
After the letter was written it was eight o'clock, and Comfort's mother said she had better go to bed.
"You look tired out," said she; "I guess you'll