Stillman. Her boys, on learning her
intention, had remonstrated; but she said: "You boys do not need me,
and these girls do. Think of a young girl like Rachel saying, 'God had
nothing to do with my mother's death. It was hard work killed her!'
And when I tried to tell her of His goodness to His creatures, she
said: 'Yes; He is good enough to men. All He cares for women is to
create them for men's convenience,' And then there's little Susy, with
a face like her mother's. Why, it just haunts me!"
"Well," said Jim, "things are in a bad fix over there; but it isn't
Susy's face that haunts me, by any means."
His mother laughed. "I shall take care of Margaret," she said; "she
and Elizabeth need some one to look after them. They are being worked
to death."
Four years have slipped over the heads of the Stillmans--years well
improved by Rachel and Susy at the academy in the town near their
father's farm; years which gave Margaret's happiness into Jim
Lansing's keeping, and made Jim a young man of whom his sisters were
extremely proud. Even Elizabeth's sad face looks as if life might be
worth living; for, under the second wife, life at Stillman's had taken
on a different color. The spare room is a pretty sitting-room for the
young folks.
"We don't want them always with us," says Mrs.
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