o
down into the kitchen and get the breakfast----"

"Must Maria get the dinner too, mamma?"

"Yes, the dinner----"

"But _can_ she, mamma?"

"She _must;_ or else your aunt Candy will hire somebody to do it; and
that will come out of what she pays me, and we shall not have enough
left. She _must_, Tilly."

"But aunt Candy wouldn't mind, just while you are sick, mamma, would
she?"

"Yes! I know. Just you do as I tell you; promise me that you will."

"I will, mamma."

"Promise me that Maria will."

"I guess she will, mamma. I'll try and make her. Shall I bring her
here, and you tell her yourself?"

"No, indeed. Don't bring Maria here. She would make such a row she
would kill me. Anne and Letty will see to things, till they go--oh, I
can't talk any longer. Give me some more water."

She was presently dozing again; and Matilda, clasping her small hands,
sat and thought over what was before her. It began to feel like a
weight on her somewhere--on her shoulders, she thought, and lying on
her heart too; and the longer she thought about it, the heavier and
harder it pressed. The family to be broken up; her mother to be
straitened for money--Matilda did not know very well what that meant,
but it sounded disagreeable; her aunt suddenly presented in new and not
pleasant colours; a general threatening cloud overshadowing all the
future. Matilda began to get, what her strong little heart was not
accustomed to, a feeling of real discouragement. What could she do? And
then a word of the afternoon's lesson in the Sunday-School came freshly
to mind. It had been quite new to Matilda, and had seemed to her very
beautiful; but it took on quite another sort of beauty now,--"Cast thy
burden upon the Lord; He shall sustain thee."

"Will He?" thought Matilda. "Can He? May I tell Him about all this? and
will He help me to bear it, and help me to do all that work, and to
make Maria do hers? But He will, _for He has said so_."

It was getting dusk in the room. Matilda knelt down by her chair, and
poured out all her troubles into the Ear that would heed and could help
her.

"Who's here?" said the voice of Mrs. Candy, coming in. "Who is that?
Matilda? How did you come here, Tilly?"

"I have been taking care of my mother."

"Have you? How is she? Well, you run down-stairs; I'll take care of her
now. It is better for you not to be here. Don't come in again, unless I
give you leave. Now you may go."

"I wonder, must I mind her?"