that she did
not want to leave the cottage. It had suddenly become dear and
precious; for all the things in it, even the meanest and smallest,
seemed full of her mother's voice and presence. Orchards Farm was a
strange country now, with nothing in it that her mother had loved or
that loved her, and to go there would be like going still farther from
her. Raising her eyes she looked round at the familiar room, at her
mother's chair, at her own little stool, at the plants in the window.
They all seemed to say: "Don't go, Lilac. It is better to stay here."
Must she go? Then suddenly she caught sight of the lilac crown lying
dusty and withered in a corner. It reminded her of a friend. "I'll ask
Uncle Joshua," she said to herself; "I'll go early to-morrow morning and
ask him. _He'll_ know."

Joshua had a very decided opinion on the question placed before him next
day: Could Lilac live alone at the cottage and take in the washing as
her mother used to do?

"I can reach the line quite easy if I stand on a stool," she said
anxiously; "and Mrs Wishing, she'd help me wring."

"Bless you, my maid," he said, "you're not old enough to make a living,
or strong enough, or wise enough yet. The proper place for you is your
Uncle Greenways' house, till such time as you come to be older."

"Mother, she always said, `Don't be beholden to no one. Stand on your
own feet.' That's what she said ever so often," faltered Lilac.

The cobbler smiled as he looked at the slight little figure. "Well, you
must wait a bit. If Mother could speak to you now, she'd say as I do.
And you won't be no farther from her at the farm; wherever and whenever
you think of her and mind what she said, and how she liked you to act,
that's her voice talking to you still. You listen and do as she bids,
and that'll make her happier and you too."

Joshua set to work again with feverish haste as he finished. He did not
like parting with Lilac, and it was difficult to say goodbye. She
lingered, looking wistfully at him.

"You'll come and see me down yonder, won't you, Uncle Joshua?"

"Why, surely, surely," replied Joshua hastily; "and you'll come and see
me. It ain't so far after all. Bless me!" he added with a testy glance
at the dusty pane in front of him, "what ails the window this morning?
It don't give no light whatever."

In a moment Lilac had fetched a duster and rubbed the little window
bright and clear. It was a small office she had often