t Mrs. Scott wanted her; for Mary would be at
home, who could attend to the household wants of everybody; and so she
satisfied her conscience at leaving the post of duty that her mother had
assigned to her, and that she had promised to fulfil. She was so eager
about her own plans that she did not consider this; she did not consider
at all, or else I think she would have seen many things to which she
seemed to be blind now. When were Mary's lessons for Monday to be
learnt? Bessy knew as well as we do, that lesson-learning was hard work
to Mary. If Mary worked as hard as she could after morning school she
could hardly get the house cleaned up bright and comfortable before
her brothers came home from the factory, which "loosed" early on the
Saturday afternoon; and if pails of water, chairs heaped up one on
the other, and tables put topsy-turvy on the dresser, were the most
prominent objects in the house-place, there would be no temptation for
the lads to stay at home; besides which, Mary, tired and weary (however
gentle she might be), would not be able to give the life to the evening
that Bessy, a clever, spirited girl, near their own age, could easily
do, if she chose to be interested and sympathising in what they had to
tell. But Bessy did not think of all this. What she did think about was
the pleasant surprise she should give her mother by the warm and pretty
covering for her feet, which she hoped to present her with on her return
home. And if she had done the duties she was pledged to on her mother's
departure first, if they had been compatible with her plan of being a
whole day absent from home, in order to earn the money for the wools,
the project of the surprise would have been innocent and praiseworthy.

Bessy prepared everything for dinner before she left home that Saturday
morning. She made a potato-pie all ready for putting in the oven; she
was very particular in telling Mary what was to be cleaned, and how it
was all to be cleaned; and then she kissed the children, and ran off to
Mrs. Scott's. Mary was rather afraid of the responsibility thrust upon
her; but still she was pleased that Bessy could trust her to do so much.
She took Jenny to the ever-useful neighbour, as she and Bill went to
school; but she was rather frightened when Mrs. Jones began to grumble
about these frequent visits of the child.

"I was ready enough to take care of the wench when thy mother was ill;
there was reason for that. And the child