better tell your aunt Mirandy. I don't
believe in deceivin' folks, but if you've hed hard thoughts you ain't
obleeged to own 'em up; take 'em to the Lord in prayer, as the hymn
says, and then don't go on hevin' 'em. Now come on; I'm all hitched up
to go over to the post-office; don't forget your bundle; 'it's always a
journey, mother, when you carry a nightgown;' them 's the first words
your uncle Jerry ever heard you say! He didn't think you'd be bringin'
your nightgown over to his house. Step in an' curl up in the corner; we
ain't goin' to let folks see little runaway gals, 'cause they're goin'
back to begin all over ag'in!"

When Rebecca crept upstairs, and undressing in the dark finally found
herself in her bed that night, though she was aching and throbbing in
every nerve, she felt a kind of peace stealing over her. She had been
saved from foolishness and error; kept from troubling her poor mother;
prevented from angering and mortifying her aunts.

Her heart was melted now, and she determined to win aunt Miranda's
approval by some desperate means, and to try and forget the one thing
that rankled worst, the scornful mention of her father, of whom she
thought with the greatest admiration, and whom she had not yet heard
criticised; for such sorrows and disappointments as Aurelia Randall had
suffered had never been communicated to her children.

It would have been some comfort to the bruised, unhappy little spirit
to know that Miranda Sawyer was passing an uncomfortable night, and
that she tacitly regretted her harshness, partly because Jane had taken
such a lofty and virtuous position in the matter. She could not endure
Jane's disapproval, although she would never have confessed to such a
weakness.

As uncle Jerry drove homeward under the stars, well content with his
attempts at keeping the peace, he thought wistfully of the touch of
Rebecca's head on his knee, and the rain of her tears on his hand; of
the sweet reasonableness of her mind when she had the matter put
rightly before her; of her quick decision when she had once seen the
path of duty; of the touching hunger for love and understanding that
were so characteristic in her. "Lord A'mighty!" he ejaculated under his
breath, "Lord A'mighty! to hector and abuse a child like that one! 'T
ain't ABUSE exactly, I know, or 't wouldn't be to some o' your
elephant-hided young ones; but to that little tender will-o'-the-wisp a
hard word 's like a lash. Mirandy Sawye