So every morning Dora sat on the school-bench studying diligently, and every afternoon on a little chair close to the seamstress’ knee, sewing on a big shirt that made her very warm and uncomfortable.

The mornings were not unpleasant; for she was in the company of other children who were all studying, and Dora was ambitious and willing to learn.  So the hours flew quickly, for she was too busy to dwell much on the loss of her dear father, and to think that he was gone forever.  But the afternoons were truly dreadful.  She must sit through the long hot hours, close by the seamstress, almost smothered by the big piece of cotton cloth, which her little fingers could hardly manage, and she grew restless and irritable, for her hands were moist, and the needle refused to be driven through the thick cloth.  How often she glanced up at the clock on the wall during those long hours, when the minute hand was surely stuck at half-past three, and the regular tic-tac seemed to fill the quiet room with its sleepy droning.  So hot, so still, so long were the hours of those summer afternoons!

The silence was broken now and then by the sounds of a distant piano.  “What a happy child that must be!” thought little Dora, “who can sit at the piano and practise exercises, and all sorts of pretty tunes!” She could think of nothing more delightful; she listened with hungry ears, and drank in every note that reached her.  In the narrow street where the seamstress lived she could hear the music distinctly, for no wagons passed, and the voices of foot-passengers did not reach up so high as to her room.  So Dora listened to the sweet melodies which were her only refreshment during those hot long hours, and even the running scales were a pleasure to her ear.  But then the thought of her father came back to her, and she felt bitterly the terrible contrast between these hot lonely afternoons and those which she used to spend with him under the cool shade of the lindens.  Then she thought of that glorious sunset, and of her father, as he stood transfigured in the golden light.  She remembered his comforting words, his assurance that some day they two and the mother would stand thus together, shining in the eternal light of Heaven.  But Dora sighed at the thought of the long weary time before she should join them, unless indeed some accident should happen to her, or she should fall ill and die, from this too heavy task of shirt-making.  After all, her best consolation was her father’s verse; and then too, he had been so sure of its truth: 

    “God holds us in his hand,
     God knows the best to send.”

She believed it too; and as she repeated the lines to herself, her heart grew lighter, and even her needle moved more easily, as if inspired by the cheering thoughts.  Yet the days were long and wearisome, and their stillness followed her when she went home to her uncle and aunt.