amilies
and farmin' 'em out here 'n' there; they'd never come to no good, an'
everybody would keep rememberin' their mother was a Sawyer. Now if
you'll draw down the curtin, I'll try to sleep."

XXIX

MOTHER AND DAUGHTER

Two months had gone by,--two months of steady, fagging work; of
cooking, washing, ironing; of mending and caring for the three
children, although Jenny was fast becoming a notable little housewife,
quick, ready, and capable. They were months in which there had been
many a weary night of watching by Aurelia's bedside; of soothing and
bandaging and rubbing; of reading and nursing, even of feeding and
bathing. The ceaseless care was growing less now, and the family
breathed more freely, for the mother's sigh of pain no longer came from
the stifling bedroom, where, during a hot and humid August, Aurelia had
lain, suffering with every breath she drew. There would be no question
of walking for many a month to come, but blessings seemed to multiply
when the blinds could be opened and the bed drawn near the window; when
mother, with pillows behind her, could at least sit and watch the work
going on, could smile at the past agony and forget the weary hours that
had led to her present comparative ease and comfort.

No girl of seventeen can pass through such an ordeal and come out
unchanged; no girl of Rebecca's temperament could go through it without
some inward repining and rebellion. She was doing tasks in which she
could not be fully happy,--heavy and trying tasks, which perhaps she
could never do with complete success or satisfaction; and like promise
of nectar to thirsty lips was the vision of joys she had had to put
aside for the performance of dull daily duty. How brief, how fleeting,
had been those splendid visions when the universe seemed open for her
young strength to battle and triumph in! How soon they had faded into
the light of common day! At first, sympathy and grief were so keen she
thought of nothing but her mother's pain. No consciousness of self
interposed between her and her filial service; then, as the weeks
passed, little blighted hopes began to stir and ache in her breast;
defeated ambitions raised their heads as if to sting her; unattainable
delights teased her by their very nearness; by the narrow line of
separation that lay between her and their realization. It is easy, for
the moment, to tread the narrow way, looking neither to the right nor
left, upborne by the sense of right