When he had stood in the doorway with his soldier 's clothes on his back , and with the light of excitement and expectancy in his eyes almost defeating the glow of regret for the home bonds , he had seenseetwo tearstearleaving their trailstrailon his mother 's scarred cheeks .
well did the tall stately girl of eighteen rememberrememberthe tearstearshed with such wild passion of griefgriefby the little girl of nine , as she hidhideher face under the bed-clothes , in that first night ; and how she was biddenbidnot to cry by the nurse , because it would disturb Miss Edith ; and how she had criedcryas bitterly , but more quietlyquietly, till her newly-seennewly, grand , pretty aunt had comecomesoftly upstairs with Mr. Hale to show him his little sleepingsleepdaughter .
Thus , between the outbreaksoutbreakof her tearstearfor her mother , it became apparentapparentto her that she must sacrifice her own feelings , and make a cheerful home for papa , and that a great many changes would be necessary in the household -- changes which went so far as even to extend to the furniture .
And soon the dogs were all tearingteardown the field of young wheat next to ours .
A gush of tearstearat her mother 's farewell kisskiss, a touchtouchin her throat when the cars clackedclackby the flour mill where her father worked by the day , a pathetic sighsighas the familiar green environs of the village passedpassin review , and the threads which bound her so lightly to girlhood and home were irretrievably brokenbreak.
All the good counsels of my parents , my father ’s tearstearand my mother ’s entreatiesentreaty, camecomenow fresh into my mind ; and my conscience , which was not yet come to the pitch of hardness to which it has since , reproachedreproachme with the contempt of advice , and the breach of my duty to God and my father .
Though , indeed , she had herself decideddecidealready , in the intervals of her tearstear, that the drawing-room furniture had got very faded and shabby , and that it would be very expedient to have it renewed for the new reign of youth and energy which was about to commence .
My mother was sitting by the firefire, but poorly in health , and very low in spirits , lookinglookat it through her tearstear, and despondingdespondheavily about herself and the fatherless little stranger , who was already welcomedwelcomeby some grosses of prophetic pins , in a drawer upstairs , to a world not at all excited on the subject of his arrivalarrival; my mother , I say , was sitting by the firefire, that bright , windy March afternoon , very timid and sad , and very doubtful of ever coming alive out of the trial that was before her , when , liftinglifther eyes as she drieddrythem , to the window opposite , she sawseea strange lady comingcomeup the garden .