s.

"Ah, there you are! What are you doing, Matilda? you have got your face
all flushed."

"It's just the fire," said Matilda.

"Fire? What are you doing, child?"

"Nothing, much. Only trying to put things a little in order."

"_You_," said Mrs. Laval. "Leave that, my darling. You cannot. There
will be somebody to do it by and by. But I wish I had somebody here
now, to make gruel, or porridge, or something, for those poor people.
They are without any comforts."

Mrs. Laval looked puzzled.

"Are they better?" Matilda asked.

"Two of them are unwell; indeed they are all ill, more or less; but the
men are really bad, I think."

"If I had some meal, I could make gruel," said Matilda. "I know how. I
have made it for--I have made it at home, often."

"Could you?" said Mrs. Laval. "There must be some meal here somewhere."

She went down to search for it. But it was found presently that she did
not know meal when she saw it; and Matilda's help was needed to decide
which barrel held the article.

"I am a useless creature," Mrs. Laval said, as she watched Matilda
getting some meal out. "If you can manage that, darling, I will be for
ever obliged to you, and so will those poor people. It is really good
to know how to do things. Why, what have you done with all the dishes
and irons that were standing about here? You have got the place in
order, I declare! What have you done with them, dear?"

"They are put away. Shall I put on a pot and boil some potatoes, Mrs.
Laval? I can; and there is a great piece of cold beef in the pantry."

"Boil potatoes? no, indeed!" said Mrs. Laval. "Norton will get us some
oysters, and some bread and some cake at the baker's. No, dear, do not
touch the horrid things; keep your hands away from them. We'll fast for
a day or two, and enjoy eating all the better afterwards."

Matilda made her gruel, nicely; and Mrs. Laval carried it herself down
to the farmhouse. She came back looking troubled. They could not touch
it, she said, after all; not one of them but the young girl; they were
really a sick house down there; and she would go to New York and get
help to-morrow. So by the early morning train she went.

It was rather a day of amusement to the two children left alone at
home. They had a great sense of importance upon them, and some sense of
business. Matilda, at least, found a good deal for herself to do,
up-stairs and down-stairs; then she and Norton sat down on the verandah
in the s