noon
Nothing had power to rouse Helen , who never realized how much she loved her young sister until now , when , with swelling heart she listlessly put to rights the room which had been theirs so long , but which was now hers alone . It was a sad task picking up that disordered chamber bearing so many traces of Katy , and Helen 's heart ached terribly as she hung away the little pink calico dressing gown in which Katy had looked so pretty , and picked up from the floor the pile of skirts lying just where they had been left the previous night ; but when it came to the little half-worn slippers which had been thrown one here and another there as Katy danced out of them , she could control herself no longer , and stopping in her work sobbed bitterly : `` Oh , Katy , Katy , how can I live without you ? '' But tears could not bring Katy back , and knowing this , Helen dried her eyes ere long and joined the family below , who like herself were spiritless and sad . It was some little solace to them all that day to follow Katy in her journey , saying , she is at Worcester , or Framingham , or Newtown , and when at noon they sat down to their dinner in the tidy kitchen , they said : `` She is in Boston , '' and the saying so made the time which had elapsed since the morning seem interminable . Slowly the hours dragged , and at last , before the sunsetting , Helen , who could bear the loneliness of home no longer , stole across the fields to Linwood , hoping in Morris ' companionship to forget her own grief in part . But Morris was a sorry comforter then . If the day had been sad to Helen , it had been doubly so to him .