me down interfering; or their mother should wake, and
come out and catch them. They bruised and blackened and scratched each
other, and were seldom without what they considered the honourable
scars of these battles. Sometimes, when Bernadine was badly mauled,
she lost her temper, and threatened to tell mamma. But Beth could
always punish her, and did so, by refusing to fight next time,
although, without that recreation, life were a blank.

Harriet always cleared away obstacles to give them room, and then sat
down to eat her dinner, and watch the fight. She had the tastes, and
some of the habits, of a Roman empress, and encouraged them with the
keenest interest for a long time, but when she had finished her dinner
she usually wearied of the entertainment, and would then stop it.

"I say, yer _ma's_ comin'! I can 'ear 'er!" she would exclaim. "'Elp
us to wash up, or I shan't be done for the reading."

When Harriet wanted help, Bernadine usually slipped away, helping
anybody not being much in her line; but Beth set to work with a will.

Beth, always sociable, had persuaded her mother to let Harriet come to
the reading; and Harriet accordingly, in a clean cap and apron, with a
piece of sewing, was added to the party.

So long as she sat on a high chair, at a respectful distance, and
remembered that she was a servant, her being there rather gratified
Mrs. Caldwell than otherwise, once she had yielded to Beth's
persuasion, and saw the practical working of the experiment; it made
her feel as if she were doing something to improve the lower classes.
It was a pity she did not try to improve Beth and Bernadine by finding
some sewing for their idle hands to do. During the reading, dear
little Bernadine, "so good and affectionate always," would sit on the
floor beside her mother, whose pocket she often picked of a penny or
sixpence to vary the monotony when she did not understand the book.
Beth also sat idle, listening intently, and watching her sister. If
the reading had been harrowing or exciting, she would fight Bernadine
for the sixpence when they went to bed. There were lively scenes
during the readings. They all wept at the pathetic parts, laughed
loudly when amused, and disputed about passages and incidents at the
top of their voices. Mrs. Caldwell forgot that Harriet was a servant,
Harriet forgot herself, and the children, unaccustomed to wordy
warfare, forgot their fear of their mother, and flew at each other's
throat