She knew that no one can bear affliction with real cheerfulness who does not trust in God.
But there was now and then a bright day when Prudy felt quite buoyant, and wanted to play.

Susy left everything then, and tried to amuse her.
If this lameness was refining little Prudy, it was also making Susy more patient.

She could not look at her little sister's pale face, and not be touched with pity.
One afternoon, Flossy Eastman and Ruthie Turner came to see Susy; and, as it was one of Prudy's best days, Mrs.Parlin said they might play in Prudy's sitting-room.

Ruthie was what Susy called an "old-fashioned little girl." She lived with a widowed mother, and had no brothers and sisters, so that she appeared much older than she really was.

She liked to talk with grown people upon wise subjects, as if she were at least twenty-five years old.