Grandma tried to look serious.

“Who put such a foolish idea into thy head, child?”

“Cousin Percy told me last night,” answered Susy, solemnly.  “How can you laugh when it’s all in the Bible, grandma?  I never told anybody before.  Wait; I’ll show you the verse.  I’ve put a mark at the place.”

Susy brought her Bible to her grandmother, and, opening it at the thirty-first chapter of Proverbs, pointed, with a trembling finger, to the eighth verse, which Mrs. Read read aloud,—­

“Open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction.”

“Now Percy says that’s a sure sign!  I told him, O, dear!  Freddy ought to marry a dumb woman; that would be properest; but Percy says no—­anything has got to ‘come to pass’ when it’s foreordinationed!”

“And could thee really believe such foolishness, my sensible little Susan?  Does thee suppose the good Lord ever meant that we should read his Bible as if it were a wicked dream-book?”

“Then you don’t think I shall have to marry Freddy Jackson,” cried Susy, immensely relieved.  “I’m so glad I told you!  I felt so sober all day, only nobody noticed it, and I was ashamed to tell!”

“It is a good thing for thee to tell thy little troubles to thy older friends, Susan:  thee’ll almost always find it so,” said grandma Read, stroking Susy’s hair.

“Now, my child, I have a piece of news for thee, if thee is ready to hear it:  thy cousin, Grace Clifford, has a little sister.”

“A baby sister?  A real sister?  Does mother know it?”

“Yes, thy mother knows it.”

“But how could you keep it to yourself so long?”

“Thee thinks good news is hard to keep, does thee?  Well, thee shall be the first to tell thy father when he comes home.”

Susy heard steps on the door-stone, and rushed out, with the joyful story on her lips.  It proved to be not her father, but callers, who were just ringing the bell; and they heard Susy’s exclamation,—­

“O, have you heard?  Grace has a new sister, a baby sister, as true as you live!” with the most provoking coolness.

But when Mr. Parlin came, he was sufficiently interested in the news to satisfy even Susy.

CHAPTER XII.

FAREWELL.

Prudy was really getting better.  Mrs. Parlin said she should trust a physician more next time.  The doctor declared that all the severe pain Prudy had suffered was really necessary.

“Believe me, my dear madam,” said he, “when the poor child has complained most, she has in fact been making most progress towards health.  When the sinews are ‘knitting together,’ as we call it, then the agony is greatest.”

This was very comforting to Mrs. Parlin, who thought she would not be discouraged so easily again; she would always believe that it is “darkest just before day.”