Eunice timidly bent over her mother . `` Ma , do you want the light lit ? '' `` No , I 'm watching that star just below the big cherry bough . I 'll see it set behind the hill . I 've seen it there , off and on , for twelve years , and now I 'm taking a good-by look at it . I want you to keep still , too . I 've got a few things to think over , and I do n't want to be disturbed . '' The girl lifted herself about noiselessly and locked her hands over the bed-post . Then she laid her face down on them , biting at them silently until the marks of her teeth showed white against their red roughness . Naomi Holland did not notice her . She was looking steadfastly at the great , pearl-like sparkle in the faint-hued sky . When it finally disappeared from her vision she struck her long , thin hands together twice , and a terrible expression came over her face for a moment . But , when she spoke , her voice was quite calm . `` You can light the candle now , Eunice . Put it up on the shelf here , where it wo n't shine in my eyes . And then sit down on the foot of the bed where I can see you . I 've got something to say to you . '' Eunice obeyed her noiselessly . As the pallid light shot up , it revealed the child plainly . She was thin and ill-formed -- one shoulder being slightly higher than the other .
She was dark , like her mother , but her features were irregular , and her hair fell XXXXX straggling , dim locks about her face .
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