ow
me everywhere.

But I would not yield to my inward irritability; I hummed a tune; I even
sang to myself, as I hemmed my new bib aprons, or quilled the neat
border for my cap. Nay, I became recklessly gay the last night, and
dressed myself in what I termed my nurse's uniform, a dark-navy blue
cambric, and then went down to show myself to Uncle Keith, who was
reading aloud the paper to Aunt Agatha. I could see him start as I
entered; but Aunt Agatha's first words made me blush, and in a moment I
repented my misplaced spirit of fun.

"Why, Merle, how pretty you look! Does not the child look almost pretty,
Ezra, though that cap does hide her nice smooth hair? I had no idea that
dress would be so becoming." But the rest of Aunt Agatha's speech was
lost upon me, for I ran out of the room. Why, they seemed actually to
believe that I was play-acting, that my part was a becoming one! Pretty,
indeed! And here such a strange revulsion of feeling took possession of
me that I absolutely shed a few tears, though none but myself was
witness to this humiliating fact.

I did not go downstairs for a long time after that, and then, to my
relief, I found Uncle Keith alone; for men are less sharp in some
matters than women, and he would never find out that I had been crying,
as Aunt Agatha would; but I was a little taken aback when he put down
his paper, and asked, in a kind voice, why I had stayed so long in the
cold, and if I had not finished my packing.

"Oh, yes," I returned, promptly, "everything was done, and my trunk was
only waiting to be strapped down."

"That is right," he said, quite heartily, "always be beforehand with
your duties, Merle; your aunt tells me you have made up your mind to
leave us in the morning. I should have thought the afternoon or early
evening would have been better."

"Oh, no, Uncle Keith," I exclaimed, and then, oddly enough, I began to
laugh, and yet the provoking tears would come to my eyes, for a vision
of sundry school domestics arriving towards night with their goods and
chattels, and the remembrance of their shy faces in the morning light
seemed to evoke a sort of dreary mirth; but to my infinite surprise and
embarrassment, Uncle Keith patted me on the shoulder as though I were a
child.

"There, there; never mind showing a bit of natural feeling that does you
credit; your aunt is fretting herself to death over losing
you--Hir-rumph; and I do not mind owning that the house will be a trifle