arms (it still being very warm) and walked down toward the river.
I kept beside Mrs. Hollenbeck and Benny, where only I felt safe.
The criticism I had heard had given me such a shock, I did not feel that
I ever could be careful enough of what I said and did. And I vaguely
felt my mother's honor would be vindicated, if I showed myself always a
modest and prudent woman.
"It was so well that I heard them," I kept saying to myself, but I felt
so much older and so much graver. My silence and constraint were no
doubt differently interpreted. Richard did not come up to me, except to
tell me I had better put my shawl on, as I sat on the steps of the
boat-house, with Benny beside me. The others had walked further on and
were sitting, some of them on the rocks, and some on the boat that had
been drawn up, watching the sun go down.
"Tell me a story," said Benny, resting his arms on my lap, "a story
about when you were a little girl."
"Oh, Benny, that wouldn't make a pretty story."
"Oh, yes, it would: all about your mamma and the house you used to live
in, and the children you used to go to see."
"Dear Benny! I never lived in but one old, dismal house. I never went
to play with any children. I could not make a story out of that."
"But your mamma. O yes, I'm sure you could if you tried very hard."
"Ah, Benny! that's the worst of all. For my mamma has been with God and
the good angels in the sky, ever since I was a little baby, and I have
had a dreary time without her here alone."
"Then I think you might tell me about God and the good angels,"
whispered Benny, getting closer to me.
I wrapped my arms around him, and leaning my face down upon his yellow
curls, told him a story of God and the good angels in the sky.
Dear little Benny! I always loved him from that night. He cried over my
story: that I suppose wins everybody's heart: and we went together,
looking at the placid river and the pale blue firmament, very far into
the paradise of faith. My tears dropped upon his upturned face; and when
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