asking pardon with which some persons are afflicted.
To her it was a relief--a thing to be met and gone through with for the
sake of the cheer, the blue-sky-in-the-heart, which lay on the other
side of it, and the peace which was sure to follow, when once the
"forgive me" was spoken.

In at the kitchen door she dashed. Wealthy, who was ironing, with a
worried frown on her brow, started and exclaimed at the sight of
Eyebright, and sat suddenly down on a chair. Before she could speak,
Eyebright's arms were round her neck.

"I was real horrid and wicked this morning," she cried. "Please
forgive me, Wealthy. I won't be so naughty again--not ever. Oh, don't,
don't!" for, to her dismay, Wealthy, the grim, broke down and began to
cry. This was really dreadful. Eyebright stared a moment; then her own
eyes filled, and she cried, too.

"What a fool I be!" said Wealthy, dashing the drops from her eyes.
"There, Eyebright, there! Hush, dear; we won't say any more about it."
And she kissed Eyebright, for perhaps the tenth time in her life.
Kisses were rare things, indeed, with Wealthy.

"Where have you been?" she asked presently. "It's four o'clock and
after. Did you know that? Have you had any dinner?"

"No, but I don't want any, Wealthy. I've been in the woods on top of
the hill. I ran away and sat there, and I guess I fell asleep," said
Eyebright, hanging her head.

"Well, your pa didn't come home to dinner, for a wonder; I reckon he
was kept to the mill; so we hadn't much cooked. I took your ma's up to
her; but I never let on that I didn't know where you was, for fear of
worrying her. She has worried a good lot any way. Here, let me brush
your hair a little, and then you'd better run upstairs and make her
mind easy. I'll have something for you to eat when you come down."

Eyebright's heart smote her afresh when she saw her mother's pale,
anxious face.

"You've been out so long," she said. "I asked Wealthy, and she said
she guessed you were playing somewhere, and didn't know how the time
went. I was afraid you felt sick, and she was keeping it from me. It
is so bad to have things kept from me; nothing annoys me so much. And
you didn't look well at breakfast. Are you sick, Eyebright?"

"No, mamma, not a bit. But I have been naughty--very naughty indeed,
mamma; and I ran away."

Then she climbed up on the bed beside her mother, and told the story
of the morning, keeping nothing back--all her hard feelings and anger
at