Comfort said no more about the ring the next morning. She knew her mother too well. She did not eat much breakfast, and crept off 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?" "Don't you bring that ring up again," said her mother. "Take your candle and go right upstairs." Comfort gave a pitiful little sob. "Now don't you go to crying over it," ordered her mother; and Comfort tried to choke back another sob as she went out of the room. Comfort's father looked up from the _Old Farmer's Almanac_. He was going to Bolton the next day with a load of wood, and wanted to see what the weather would be, and so was consulting the almanac. "What was it Comfort wanted?" he inquired. "She wanted to wear that gold ring her Aunt Comfort gave her to school," replied Mrs. Pease. "And I've told her over and over again I shouldn't let her do it." "It's a mile too big for her, and she'd be sure to lose it off," said Grandmother Atkins; "and it would be a pity to have anything happen to it, when it's real gold, too." "She couldn't wind a rag round her finger under it, could she?" asked Comfort's father, hesitatingly. "Wear a rag round her finger under it!" repeated Mrs. Pease. "I rather guess she can wait till her finger grows to it. You'd let that child do anything." Mr. Pease did not say anything more, but studied the _Old Farmer's Almanac_ again, and found out it was likely to be fair weather for the season.