father say one day, "It will really be easier for you, dear, when I am
gone," at which her mother burst into tears and wailed something Esther
could not quite understand, about being left to bear all the worries
alone. "It is much worse for those who are left than for those who go,"
she cried.

"But you will have the children," Mr. Carroll said sadly.

"Yes, four of them to feed and bring up on two hundred a year, and only
one servant to help me. I don't know how any one can expect me to do it.
I've not had a new gown myself for nearly a year."

"It shall not be for long, dear, if I can help it," her husband had said,
very patiently. "As soon as possible I will send for you and the
children. But it is no use to take you all out until I have a home of
some sort ready for you; it would be greater misery than this."

But Mrs. Carroll had only wept more and more, until the children began to
weep too, though they did not know for what.

Soon after that there had been a great deal of upset and excitement in the
house: big boxes stood about on the landing, and the children were told
that daddy was packing--he was going away to Canada, where they were all
to join him soon. For a few days this news filled them with a pleasant
excitement, and for months after their father had gone Esther and Penelope
talked and talked of what they would do when they got to Canada, and
Penelope dragged out an old trunk and began to pack a curious assortment
of things that she thought peculiarly suitable for that country.
But as time went on she found she needed the things, and by degrees the
thought of Canada became dim, and of no immediate interest to them.
They were excited at first when their father's letters came because they
thought each one would bring the longed-for summons; then they grew almost
to dread them, for their mother always broke out into tears and wailings
on reading them, finally locking herself in her room for the rest of the
day, and the children were left to themselves to try to throw off the load
of oppression and wretchedness which weighed on them even while they
played. The memory of the wretchedness of those days remained with them
to the end of their lives.

Two, three, four years passed by, and gradually they forgot Canada, and
Mrs. Carroll ceased to weep on receipt of a letter from her husband; but
whether it was that she grew more used to her trouble, or that the news
was better, the children did not know