loved so well. She died and her children were broken-hearted. They
mourned for her each after her own fashion, and each according to her
individual character. Primrose retained her calmness and her common
sense in the midst of all her grief; Jasmine was tempestuous and
hysterical, bursting into laughter one minute and sobbing wildly the
next. Little Daisy felt frightened in Jasmine's presence--she did not
quite believe that mother would never come back, and she clung to
Primrose, who protected and soothed her; in short, took a mother's
place to her, and felt herself several years older on the spot.

For a month the girls grieved and shut themselves away from their
neighbors, and refused to go out, or to be in any measure comforted. A
month in the ordinary reckoning is really a very short period of time,
but to these girls, in their grief and misery, it seemed almost
endless. One night Jasmine lay awake from the time she laid her head
on the pillow till the first sun had dawned; then Primrose took
fright, and began to resume her old gentle, but still firm authority.

"Jasmine," she said, "we have got our black dresses--they are made
very neatly, and we have done them all ourselves. Staying in the house
this lovely weather won't bring dear mamma back again; we will have
tea a little earlier than usual, and go for a walk this evening."

Jasmine, whenever she could stop crying, had been longing for a walk,
but had crushed down the desire as something unnatural, and
disrespectful to dear mamma, but of course if Primrose suggested it it
was all right. Her face brightened visibly, and as to Daisy, she sat
down and began to play with the kitten on the spot.

That evening the three desolate young creatures put on their new black