She would be brave and
strong, as it became her mother's son to be. So to the lowest depths
of the deepest trunk in the garret she mentally consigned Helena.
There, beyond the reach of her loving eyes and arms, she should lie in
banishment until her heart became callous.
But there was something so repulsive in the idea of smothering human
Helena under layers of old garments, that Mollie finally thought of a
better way. Helena should no longer be Helena, dear to her heart in
all her little feminine adornings and her sympathetic, tender traits
of character. She should undergo a change; a radical reform. She, too,
should become a boy, and her name should be Thomas. Thenceforth Mollie
spent her leisure moments in manufacturing garments suitable for the
change; and at last she saw a boy-doll, in roundabout and pantaloons,
occupying the chair where Helena had so long sat in dainty dresses.
The sight was a perpetual offense to her eyes; but she bore it
bravely, keeping in store for herself a reward of merit in Mr.
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