When I reached the little house on the point I saw the lamp still burning wanly in the window . A quick alarm struck at my heart . Without waiting to knock , I lifted the latch , and entered . Uncle Jesse was lying on the old sofa by the window , with the book clasped to his heart . His eyes were closed and on his face was a look of the most perfect peace and happiness -- the look of one who has long sought and found at last . We could not know at what hour he had died , but somehow I think he had his wish and went out when the morning came in through the Golden Gate . Out on that shining tide his spirit drifted , over the sunrise sea of pearl and silver , to the haven where lost Margaret waited beyond the storms and calms . The Little Black Doll Everybody in the Marshall household was excited on the evening of the concert at the Harbour Light Hotel -- everybody , even to Little Joyce , who could n't go to the concert because there was n't anybody else to stay with Denise . Perhaps Denise was the most excited of them all -- Denise , who was slowly dying of consumption in the Marshall kitchen chamber because there was no other place in the world for her to die in , or anybody to trouble about her . Mrs. Roderick Marshall thought it very good of herself to do so much for Denise . To be sure , Denise was not much bother , and Little Joyce did most of the waiting on her . At the tea table nothing was talked of but the concert ; for was not Madame Laurin , the great French Canadian prima donna , at the hotel , and was she not going to sing ? It was the opportunity of a lifetime -- the Marshalls would not have missed it for anything . Stately , handsome old Grandmother Marshall was going , and Uncle Roderick and Aunt Isabella , and of course Chrissie , who was always taken everywhere because she was pretty and graceful , and everything that Little Joyce was not . Little Joyce would have liked to go to the concert , for she was very fond of music ; and , besides , she wanted to be able to tell Denise all about it . But when you are shy and homely and thin and awkward , your grandmother never takes you anywhere . At least , such was Little Joyce 's belief . Little Joyce knew quite well that Grandmother Marshall did not like her . She thought it was because she was so plain and awkward -- and in part it was . Grandmother Marshall cared very little for granddaughters who did not do her credit .
But Little Joyce 's mother had married a poor man in the face of her family 's disapproval , and then both she and her husband had been inconsiderate enough XXXXX die and leave a small orphan without a penny to support her .
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