miserably to school at a quarter past eight, and she had another
unhappy day. Nobody had forgotten about the gold ring. She was teased
about it at every opportunity. "Why didn't you wear that handsome
gold ring?" asked the big girl with red cheeks, until poor Comfort
got nearly distracted. It seemed to her that the time to go home
would never come, and as if she could never endure to go to school
again. That night she begged her mother to let her stay at home the
next day. "No," said her mother; "you've begun to go to school, and
you're going to school unless you're sick. Now this evening you had
better sit down and write a letter to your Aunt Comfort. It's a long
time since you wrote to her."

So Comfort sat down and wrote laboriously a letter to her Aunt
Comfort, and thanked her anew, as she always did, for her gold ring
and the gold dollar. "I wish to express my thanks again for the
beautiful and valuable gifts which you presented me for my name,"
wrote Comfort, in the little stilted style of the day.

After the letter was written it was eight o'clock, and Comfort's
mother said she had better go to bed.

"You look tired out," said she; "I guess you'll have to go to bed
early if you're going to school."

"Can't I stay home to-morrow, mother?" pleaded Comfort, with sudden
hope.

"No," said her mother; "you've got to go if you're able."

"Mother, can't I wear it just once?"