unt Alice excepted--was
rather a trial than a pleasure to Christabel. The young people were
rough and noisy, even when they tried not to be so, and the child's
nerves were weak. Aunt Tabitha worried her to "rouse herself, and not
be a burden on her poor father"; and how gladly would Christabel have
done it! Uncle Thomas was also a harassing visitor, though in another
way. He never knew what to say, when he had once asked how the invalid
felt: he only sat and gazed at her and the window alternately, now and
then, as though by a mental jerk, bringing out a few words.

"He causes me to feel so naughty, Aunt," said Christie dolefully, "and I
do want to be good. He sits and looks on me till I feel--I feel--Aunt
Alice, I can't find the words: as if all my brains would come out of my
finger-ends, if he went on. And now and then he says a word or two--
such as `Rain afore night, likely,' or `Bought a drove of pigs
yesterday,' and I can only say, `Yes, uncle.' I think 'tis hard for
both of us, Aunt Alice, for we don't know what to say one to the other.
I can't talk to _him_, and he can't talk to _me_."

Alice laughed, and then the tears almost rose in her eyes, as she softly
smoothed Christie's fair hair. She knew full well the sensation of
intense, miserable nerve-strain, for which the little girl strove in
vain to find words.

"'Tis hard to be patient, little Christie," she said tenderly. "But God
knoweth it, dear heart; and He is very patient with us."

"O Aunt Alice, I know! And I am so sorry afterwards, when I should have
been quiet and patient, and I have spoken crossly. People know not how
hard it is, and how hard one tries: they only see when one gives way.
They see not even how ashamed one is afterwards."

"Truth, sweet heart; but the Lord seeth."

"Aunt, think you the Lord Jesus ever felt thus?"

"He never felt sin, Christie; but I reckon He knew as well as any of us
what it is to be wearied and troubled, when matters went not to His
comfort. `The contradiction of sinners' covereth a great deal."

"I wonder," said Christie plaintively, "if He felt as if it hurt Him
when His brethren banged the doors! Friswith alway does when she comes;
and it is like as if she struck me on the ears. And she never seems to
hear it!"

"I cannot tell, sweeting, what He felt in the days of His flesh at
Nazareth; but I can tell thee a better thing--that He doth feel now, and
for thee. `I am poor and needy, but the L