ove, leaned over her sister's
shoulder to pass an approving hand over the circular rim of the clock.
"Hear how loud she ticks. I was afraid you'd hear her soon as you come
in."

"No. I wasn't thinking," murmured Evelina.

"Well, ain't you glad now?" Ann Eliza gently reproached her. The rebuke
had no acerbity, for she knew that Evelina's seeming indifference was
alive with unexpressed scruples.

"I'm real glad, sister; but you hadn't oughter. We could have got on
well enough without."

"Evelina Bunner, just you sit down to your tea. I guess I know what
I'd oughter and what I'd hadn't oughter just as well as you do--I'm old
enough!"

"You're real good, Ann Eliza; but I know you've given up something you
needed to get me this clock."

"What do I need, I'd like to know? Ain't I got a best black silk?" the
elder sister said with a laugh full of nervous pleasure.

She poured out Evelina's tea, adding some condensed milk from the jug,
and cutting for her the largest slice of pie; then she drew up her own
chair to the table.

The two women ate in silence for a few moments before Evelina began to
speak again. "The clock is perfectly lovely and I don't say it ain't a
comfort to have it; but I hate to think what it must have cost you."

"No, it didn't, neither," Ann Eliza retorted. "I got it dirt cheap, if
you want to know. And I paid for it out of a little extra work I did the
other night on the machine for Mrs. Hawkins."

"The baby-waists?"

"Yes."

"There, I knew it! You swore to me you'd buy a new pair of shoes with
that money."

"Well, and s'posin' I didn't want 'em--what then? I've patched up the
old ones as good as new--and I do declare, Evelina Bunner, if you ask me
another question you'll go and spoil all my pleasure."

"Very well, I won't," said the younger sister.

They continued to eat without farther words. Evelina yielded to her
sister's entreaty that she should finish the pie, and poured out a
second cup of tea, into which she put the last lump of sugar; and
between them, on the table, the clock kept up its sociable tick.

"Where'd you get it, Ann Eliza?" asked Evelina, fascinated.

"Where'd you s'pose? Why, right round here, over acrost the Square, in
the queerest little store you ever laid eyes on. I saw it in the window
as I was passing, and I stepped right in and asked how much it was, and
the store-keeper he was real pleasant about it. He was just the nicest
man. I guess he's a German. I