m the first she had been the
steadiest and most industrious of the young girls of the place, and by
diligent study had raised herself far in advance of the rest. She had
too been always so willing and ready to oblige and help that she was a
great favourite with both.

"I have been thinking," Mrs. Dodgson said to her husband on the evening
of the day of John Hardy's death, "whether, as Miss Bolton, the
assistant mistress, is going to leave at the end of the month, to be
married, Nelly Hardy would not make an excellent successor for her.
There is no doubt she is fully capable of filling the situation; her
manners are all that could be wished, and she has great influence with
the younger children. The only drawback was her disreputable old father.
It would hardly have done for my assistant to appear in school in the
morning with a black eye, and for all the children to know that her
drunken father had been beating her. Now he is gone that objection is at
an end. She and her mother, who has been as bad as the father, but is
now, I believe, almost imbecile, could live in the little cottage Miss
Bolton occupies."

"I think it would be an excellent plan, my dear, excellent; we could
have no one we should like better, or who could be a more trustworthy
and helpful assistant to you. By all means let it be Nelly Hardy. I will
go up and speak to Mr. Brook to-morrow. As he is our patron I must
consult him, but he will agree to anything we propose. Let us say
nothing about it until you tell her yourself after the funeral."

Mrs. Dodgson saw Nelly Hardy several times in the next few days, and
went in and sat with her as she worked at her mourning; but it was not
until John Hardy was laid in the churchyard that she opened the subject.

"Come up in the morning, my dear," she had said that day; "I want to
have a talk with you."

On the following morning Nelly, in her neatly-fitting black mourning
dress, made her appearance at the school-house, after breakfast, a
quarter of an hour before school began.

"Sit down, my dear," Mrs. Dodgson said, "I have some news to give you
which will, I think, please you. Of course you have been thinking what
to do?"

"Yes, 'm; I have made up my mind to try and get work in a factory."

"Indeed! Nelly," Mrs. Dodgson said, surprised; "I should have thought
that was the last thing that you would like."

"It is not what I like," Nelly said quietly, "but what is best. I would
rather go into service,