"'But what did you get white for, Anna?' says I, as she unfolded the silk, smiling and looking with her bright eager eyes in my face, 'It isn't a color for use--this comes of trusting young girls to choose things for themselves.' "'I didn't choose it--it was Mr. Farnham,' says she, blushing up to her temples, and trying to laugh. "'Well, what did he get this useless color for?' says Hannah, holding up the silk with one of her stern looks, that I could see made poor Anna tremble from head to foot. 'It will be spoiled the first time of wearing! fit for nothing on earth but the wedding-dress of some great lady.' "'It is a wedding-dress--that's what Mr. Farnham bought it for,' says Anna, bursting out a crying, while her face was as red as the wild rose. "Hannah dropped the silk as if it had been a firebrand, and her face turned white as a curd. She looked at me, and I at her, then we both looked at Anna. Poor girl! how frightened she was! First she turned to sister; but Hannah was taken by surprise and didn't know how to act--then she crept towards me with a sort of smile on her mouth and her eyes pleading for her, as I've seen a rabbit when taken from a trap--I just reached out my arms without knowing it, and drew her close to my bosom. "She flung her arms around my neck and then we both burst out a crying, while Hannah sat down in a chair with her hands folded hard in her lap, and looked on growing whiter and whiter every minute. "'It's true, brother,' whispered Anna, at last, hiding her face agin mine, 'I'm going to be married--kiss me, please, and just whisper that you like it.' "I couldn't help kissing her hot cheeks, though every word went to my heart, for I saw well enough how Hannah would take it. "Anna hung around me till I had kissed her more than once, I'm afraid, then she drew away from my arm like a child that's determined to stand alone, and went up to sister Hannah. "'Sister, won't you kiss me, as well as Nathan?' says she in her sweet, coaxing way. "But Hannah sat still, white as ever. She only gave her fingers a closer grip around each other. Anna sunk down to the floor, bending her ankle back and sitting upon the heel of one little foot. "'Mother Hannah, don't be cross--what harm have I done?' says she, lifting her pretty face, all wet with tears, to meet the hard, set look of our sister. 'Mother Hannah,' says the girl again, drawing her face closer and closer, 'won't you kiss me as Nathan did?' "Hannah bent her head, and it seemed as if a marble woman had moved. She touched the girl's forehead with her lips, and, says she, "'God forgive you!' "I think to this day that sister meant, 'God bless you' and tried to say it, but 'God forgive you' came from her lips in spite of that. This frightened Anna. So with a sort of wild look toward me, the girl got up and went out of the room, crying as if her heart would break. She couldn't understand the thing at all.