Matilda. "I hope your mother won't say much. Good-by, Comfort."

"Good-by," returned Comfort.

Then Matilda went into her house, and Comfort hurried home alone down
the snowy road in the deepening dusk. She kept thinking of that
dreadful story which Matilda had read. She was panting for breath.
Anxiety and remorse and the journey to Bolton had almost exhausted
poor little Comfort Pease. She hurried as fast as she could, but her
feet felt like lead, and it seemed to her that she should never reach
home. But when at last she came in sight of the lighted kitchen
windows her heart gave a joyful leap, for she saw her mother's figure
moving behind them, and knew that Matilda's story was not true in her
case.

When she reached the door she leaned against it a minute. She was so
out of breath, and her knees seemed failing under her. Then she
opened the door and went in.

Her father and mother and grandmother were all in there, and they
turned round and stared at her.

"Comfort Pease," cried her mother, "what is the matter?"

"You didn't fall down, or anythin', did you?" asked her grandmother.

Then Comfort burst out with a great sob of confession. "I--took--it,"
she gasped. "I took my gold ring that Aunt Comfort gave me for her
name--and--I wore it to school, and Miss Tabitha pinned it in my
pocket, and I lost it. And Matilda she gave me the gold dollar her