“Caroline can see to write letters, and she is farther from the window than you are,” said Rebecca.

“Are you trying to save kerosene or are you lazy, Rebecca Glynn?” cried Mrs. Brigham.  “I can go and get the light myself, but I have this work all in my lap.”

Caroline’s pen stopped scratching.

“Rebecca, we must have the light,” said she.

“Had we better have it in here?” asked Rebecca weakly.

“Of course!  Why not?” cried Caroline sternly.

“I am sure I don’t want to take my sewing into the other room, when it is all cleaned up for to-morrow,” said Mrs. Brigham.

“Why, I never heard such a to-do about lighting a lamp.”

Rebecca rose and left the room.  Presently she entered with a lamp—­ a large one with a white porcelain shade.  She set it on a table, an old-fashioned card-table which was placed against the opposite wall from the window.  That wall was clear of bookcases and books, which were only on three sides of the room.  That opposite wall was taken up with three doors, the one small space being occupied by the table.  Above the table on the old-fashioned paper, of a white satin gloss, traversed by an indeterminate green scroll, hung quite high a small gilt and black-framed ivory miniature taken in her girlhood of the mother of the family.  When the lamp was set on the table beneath it, the tiny pretty face painted on the ivory seemed to gleam out with a look of intelligence.

“What have you put that lamp over there for?” asked Mrs. Brigham, with more of impatience than her voice usually revealed.  “Why didn’t you set it in the hall and have done with it.  Neither Caroline nor I can see if it is on that table.”

“I thought perhaps you would move,” replied Rebecca hoarsely.

“If I do move, we can’t both sit at that table.  Caroline has her paper all spread around.  Why don’t you set the lamp on the study table in the middle of the room, then we can both see?”

Rebecca hesitated.  Her face was very pale.  She looked with an appeal that was fairly agonizing at her sister Caroline.

“Why don’t you put the lamp on this table, as she says?” asked Caroline, almost fiercely.  “Why do you act so, Rebecca?”

“I should think you would ask her that,” said Mrs. Brigham.  “She doesn’t act like herself at all.”

Rebecca took the lamp and set it on the table in the middle of the room without another word.  Then she turned her back upon it quickly and seated herself on the sofa, and placed a hand over her eyes as if to shade them, and remained so.

“Does the light hurt your eyes, and is that the reason why you didn’t want the lamp?” asked Mrs. Brigham kindly.

“I always like to sit in the dark,” replied Rebecca chokingly.  Then she snatched her handkerchief hastily from her pocket and began to weep.  Caroline continued to write, Mrs. Brigham to sew.