Prim had from the first looked
upon Abigail principally as an obstacle to be overcome.
She had tried to 'do right by her'; but she had never
given the child what a child most needs and most
craves--love and understanding. Not loving Abigail, the
house-keeper could, naturally, not give her love; and as
for understanding her one might as reasonably have ex-
pected an adding machine to understand higher mathe-
matics.
Jonas Prim loved his daughter. There was nothing,
within reason, that money could buy which he would
not have given her for the asking; but Jonas Prim's love,
as his life, was expressed in dollar signs, while the love
which Abigail craved is better expressed by any other
means at the command of man.
Being misunderstood and, to all outward appearances
of sentiment and affection, unloved had not in any way
embittered Abigail's remarkably joyous temperament.
made up for it in some measure by getting all the fun
and excitement out of life which she could discover
therein, or invent through the medium of her own re-
sourceful imagination.
But recently the first real sorrow had been thrust into
her young life since the half-forgotten mother had been
taken from her.
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