Page:Cornelia Meigs--The Pool of Stars.djvu/100

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
86
The Pool of Stars

are not like other people. Sometimes she seems to me like a person who sees a great trouble coming nearer and nearer and doesn't know what to do."

"I wish," Betsey said with a deep wistful sigh, "oh, how I wish we could help her!"

"Perhaps we can," returned David. He was looking about him intently, as though already deciding what could be done.

"I think," Betsey went on, "that nothing could please me more in the world than to see Miss Miranda lose that worried, frightened look, and to know that she is comfortable and happy again."

David shook his head.

"I want more than that," he declared. "I'm not going to be satisfied until everything is as it was, until this house is rebuilt and they are living here again, safe and peaceful and at home. If we are to help at all, we should work for that. Shall we try?"

The ambition seemed to be rather an overwhelming one. To Elizabeth, as she looked about the still garden, sleeping in the level sunshine, it appeared that only something miraculous could awake it into stirring life again. But how much happiness it would bring! She often wondered what that strained look in Miss Miranda's eyes could mean; she understood now, it was the look of some one who wants to go home.