Comfort took the ring out, shut the box-lid down, turned the key, and fled.  She thought some one called her name as she went upstairs, and she stopped and listened; but all she heard was the clock ticking and her father snoring and her heart beating.  Then she kept on to her own chamber, and put out her candle, and crept into her feather-bed under the patchwork quilts.  There she lay all night, wide awake, with the gold ring clasped tightly in her little cold fist.

When Comfort came downstairs the next morning there was a bright red spot on each cheek, and she was trembling as if she had a chill.

Her mother noticed it, and asked if she was cold, and Comfort said, “Yes, ma’am.”

“Well, draw your stool up close to the fire and get warm,” said her mother.  “Breakfast is ’tmost ready.  You can have some of the pancakes to carry to school for your dinner.”

Comfort sat soberly in the chimney-corner until breakfast was ready, as her mother bade her.  She was very silent, and did not say anything during breakfast unless some one asked her a question.

When she started for school her mother and grandmother stood in the window and watched her.

It was a very cold morning, and Mrs. Pease had put her green shawl on Comfort over her coat; and the little girl looked very short and stout as she trudged along between the snow-ridges which bordered the path, and yet there was a forlorn air about her.

“I don’t know as the child was fit to go to school to-day,” Mrs. Pease said, doubtfully.

“She didn’t look very well, and she didn’t eat much breakfast, either,” said Grandmother Atkins.

“She was always crazy after hot pancakes, too,” said her mother.

“Hadn’t you better call her back, Em’ly?”

“No, I won’t,” said Mrs. Pease, turning away from the window.  “She’s begun to go to school, and I’m not going to take her out unless I’m sure she ain’t able to go.”

So Comfort Pease went on to school; and she had the gold ring in her pocket, which was tied around her waist with a string under her dress skirt, as was the fashion then.  Comfort often felt of the pocket to be sure the ring was safe as she went along.  It was bitterly cold; the snow creaked under her stout shoes.  Besides the green shawl, her red tippet was wound twice around her neck and face; but her blue eyes peering over it were full of tears which the frosty wind forced into them, and her breath came short and quick.  When she came in sight of the school-house she could see the straight column of smoke rising out of the chimney, it was so thin in the cold air.  There were no scholars out in the yard, only a group coming down the road from the opposite direction.  It was too cold to play out of doors before school, as usual.

Comfort pulled off her mittens, thrust her hand in her pocket dangling against her blue woolen petticoat, and drew out the gold ring.