er kneeled beside the bed, and, in a very few words, prayed
that Hugh might be able to bear his misfortune well, and that his friends
might give him such help and comfort as God should approve.

8. Hugh found himself subject to very painful feelings sometimes, such as
no one quite understood, and such as he feared no one was able to pity as
they deserved. On one occasion, when he had been quite merry for a while,
and his mother and his sister Agnes were chatting, they thought they heard
a sob from the sofa. They spoke to Hugh, and found that he was indeed
crying bitterly.

"What is it, my dear?" said his mother. "Agnes, have we said anything that
could hurt his feelings?"

"No, no," sobbed Hugh. "I will tell you, presently."

9. And, presently, he told them that he was so busy listening to what they
said that he forgot everything else, when he felt as if something had
gotten between two of his toes; unconsciously he put down his hand as if
his foot were there! Nothing could be plainer than the feeling in his
toes; and then, when he put out his hand, and found nothing, it was so
terrible, it startled him so! It was a comfort to find that his mother
knew about this. She came, and kneeled by his sofa, and told him that many
persons who had lost a limb considered this the most painful thing they
had to bear for some time; but that, though the feeling would return
occasionally through life, it would cease to be painful.

10. Hugh was very much dejected, and when he thought of the months and
years to the end of his life, and that he should never run and play, and
never be like other people, he almost wished that he were dead.

Agnes thought that he must be miserable indeed if he could venture to say
this to his mother. She glanced at her mother's face, but there was no
displeasure there. On the contrary, she said this feeling was very
natural. She had felt it herself under smaller misfortunes than Hugh's;
but she had found, though the prospect appeared all strewn with troubles,
that they came singly, and were not so hard to bear, after all.

11. She told Hugh that when she was a little girl she was very lazy, fond
of her bed, and not at all fond of dressing or washing.

"'Why, mother! you?" exclaimed Hugh.

"Yes; that was the sort of little girl I was. Well, I was in despair, one
day, at the thought that I should have to wash, and clean my teeth, and
brush my hair, and put on every article of dress, every morning, as