f
tears. Maria had stayed at home from Sunday-School to-day.

"What is the matter, Maria?" her little sister inquired. "How's mamma?"

"I don't know! Oh, nothing will ever be well again. O Tilly, what will
become of us!"

And here a storm of sobs and tears came on, in the midst of which
Matilda's questions could get no attention. Matilda knew her sister,
however, and waited.

"O Tilly!--it's so dreadful!"

"What?" said Matilda calmly.

"We haven't got anything to live upon. Anne and Letty have been telling
me. We haven't. We are going to be as poor as--as poor as anybody. We
have got nothing to buy anything with--nothing at all! Anne says so."

"Did mamma say so?"

"Mother's sick. No, Aunt Candy told the girls. It's true. Somebody or
something that had mamma's money--to take care of--has gone off, or
been ruined, or something; and we are ruined! There is nothing left at
all for us to live upon. And that is what has been troubling mamma all
these weeks; and now it is certain, and she knows all about it; and I
guess it is that has made her sick. Oh, what shall we do?"

The turn of Matilda's head was inimitable and indescribable. It was not
arrogance or affectation; it was perfectly natural to the child; but to
a bystander it would have signified that she was aware Maria's views
and statements were not to be relied upon and could not be made the
basis of either opinion or action. She took off her things, and without
another word made her way to the room of her elder sisters. They were
both sitting there gloomily.

"How is mamma?"

"I don't know. I haven't seen her since dinner."

It was with a little of the same half-graceful, half-competent gesture
of the head that Matilda applied herself to Letitia.

"What is all this story, Letty, that Maria has been telling me?"

"How should I know? Maria tells a great many stories."

"I mean, about what has been troubling mamma."

"Maria had no business to tell you, and so trouble you with it."

"But is it true, Letty? Anne, is it true?"

"I suppose it is true--if you mean what she heard from me a little
while ago. That is true."

"And mamma has lost all her money?"

"Every cent."

"When did you know it, Anne and Letty?"

"We have known it a day or two. It is true. It is all true, Tilly."

"What is mamma going to do, then?"

"Get well, I hope. That is the first thing. Aunt Candy says she will
pay for her board and Clarissa's, and mamma and you can live o