you to market, or writing them down as soon as you come
home. You will soon learn, and you will like the plan more and more. It
is so nice to know exactly where the money went, day by day."

"Sometimes the grocer has a little book to put things down, too," said
the little girl. "If he has a book why do I have to have one?"

"Because he may make a mistake, for one thing," her aunt replied, "and
because if you have him put things down and do not do it too, you spend
more than you think, and grow extravagant. You can pay each day, if you
prefer, or once a week, or once a month; some people like one way, and
some another about this, but you should always keep your own accounts,
anyway, and know what you have had and how much, and what it cost; and
at the end of each month you must copy off the result of adding your
columns, and see what the expenses of the month have come to, and so at
the end of the year. That's the way a good housekeeper does!"

"Well," said Margaret, "then I will do that way, too, even if it is some
trouble."

"That's right," said her aunt. "If you do, I'll give you the loveliest
set of account-books and the prettiest silver pencil I can buy when
Christmas comes."

"Oh, I truly, truly will!" Margaret exclaimed. "I'll put down every
single penny."

CHAPTER XII

THE DAY'S WORK

It happened that just as Margaret was finishing her Saturday morning
lessons Bridget had to go away for a few days, and the last lesson of
all, which was given by her mother, was really a sort of review of what
she had learned, such as she had in her school lessons.

It was hardly more than six o'clock in the morning when the little girl
woke and jumped out of bed. She dressed softly so that she should not
wake any one, and took her bed to pieces and set her closet door open,
as she had learned in her Bedroom lesson. She threw up the windows and
hung up her night-dress, and then left the room, closing the door behind
her.

Her mother met her in the hall, and they went down-stairs together,
tying on their clean gingham aprons as they went. The house was all shut
up of course, so they opened the front doors, raised the shades in the
parlors, and opened the windows a little to change the air. In the
kitchen the fire was burning, shut up as they had left it the night
before, and they first closed it to shake it down, and then opened the
drafts and put on fresh coal, as Margaret had learned when she studied
about th