It occurred to me, indirectly, what Emily had said about my stringing
words together, and I marvelled if possibly my exhortation had soared
over poor Harvey's head and left his heart aching for an ordinary word of
sympathy, or a simple reference to One who as a man of sorrows, was best
fitted to understand and console his grief. To any sentiments of the
latter nature, Harvey was particularly susceptible.
"Children, all of them!" Thus gently apostrophizing the Wallencampers, I
dismissed the cause of my brief mental discomfiture, with a half-pitying
smile.
The day after Mr. 'Lihu's death, I looked down from my desk in school to
see the infant Sophronia weeping bitterly.
"What is the matter, Sophronia?" I said.
"Carietta's been to see the cops twice," she sobbed; "and I ain't been
any."
I only gathered from this that Carietta was somehow implicated as being
the cause of the infant Sophronia's sufferings.
"Now," said I gravely; "tell me what you mean?"
"She means the cops!" cried Carietta, her small face distorted with a
leer of the most horrid satisfaction, "'Lihu's cops. 'Phrony means
the----"
"That will do," I said. "I understand you perfectly.
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