"Did your mother scold you?" asked Matilda. There was something very innocent and sympathizing and honest about Matilda's black eyes as she asked the question. "No," faltered Comfort. She did not dare tell Matilda that her mother knew nothing at all about it. Matilda, as they went along, put an arm around Comfort under her shawl. "Don't cry; it's too bad," said she. But Comfort wept harder. "Look here," said Matilda. "Comfort, your mother wouldn't let you buy another ring with that gold dollar, would she?" "That gold dollar's to keep," sobbed Comfort; "it ain't to spend." And, indeed, she felt as if spending that gold dollar would be almost as bad as losing the ring; the bare idea of it horrified her. "Well, I didn't s'pose it was," said Matilda, abashedly. "I just happened to think of it." Suddenly she gave Comfort a little poke with her red-mittened hand. "Don't you cry another minute, Comfort Pease," she cried. "I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll ask my Uncle Jared to give me a gold dollar, and then I'll give it to you to buy a gold ring." "I don't believe he will," sobbed Comfort. "Yes, he will. He always gives me everything I ask him for. He thinks more of me than he does of Rosy and Imogen, you know, 'cause he was going to get married once, when he was young, and she died, and I look like her." "Were you named after her?" inquired Comfort. "No; her name was Ann Maria; but I look like her. Uncle Jared will give me a gold dollar, and I'll ask him to take us to Bolton in his sleigh Saturday afternoon, and then you can buy another ring. Don't you cry another mite, Comfort Pease." And poor Comfort tried to keep the tears back as the bell began to ring, and she and Matilda hastened to the school-house. Matilda put up her hand and whispered to her in school-time. "You come over to my house Saturday afternoon, and I'll get Uncle Jared to take us," she whispered. And Comfort nodded soberly. Comfort tried to learn her arithmetic lesson, but she could not remember the seven multiplication table, and said in the class that five times seven were fifty-seven, and went to the foot. She cried at that, and felt a curious satisfaction in having something to cry for besides the loss of the ring. Comfort did not look any more for the ring that day nor the next. The next day was Friday, and Matilda met her at school in the morning with an air of triumph. She plunged her hand deep in her pocket, and drew it out closed in a tight pink fist. "Guess what I've got in here, Comfort Pease," said she. She unclosed her fingers a little at a time, until a gold dollar was visible in the hollow of her palm. "There, what did I tell you" she said. "And he says he'll take us to Bolton if he don't have to go to Ware to see about buying a horse. You come over to-morrow, right after dinner." The next morning after breakfast Comfort asked her mother if she might go over to Matilda's that afternoon.