rhead, Grannie Barnes moaned and groaned, and tossed and heaved on her
bed, but Mona slept on unconcerned and happy. Even the creaking of the
stairs when granny came down in the morning did not rouse her. The first
thing that she was conscious of was a hand shaking her by the shoulders,
and a voice saying rather sharply, "Come, wake up. Don't you know that
it's eight o'clock, and no fire lit, nor nothing! I thought I might have
lain on a bit this morning, and you'd have brought me a cup of tea,
knowing how bad I've been, and very far from well yet. You said you did
it for your stepmother. It's a good thing I didn't wait any longer!"

Mona sat up and stretched, and rubbed her eyes. "Could this be granny
talking? Granny, who had never expected anything of her!"

No one feels in the best of tempers when roused out of a beautiful sleep,
and to be greeted by a scolding when least of all expecting it, does not
make one feel more amiable.

"I was fast asleep," she mumbled, yawning. "I couldn't know the time if I
was asleep. You should have called me." She dropped back on her pillow
wearily. "Oh, I'm so tired and I am aching all over. I don't believe
I'll ever wake up any more, granny. Why--why must I get up?"

"To do some work for once. I thought you might want some breakfast."

This was so unlike the indulgent granny she had known before she went
away, that Mona could not help opening her eyes wide in surprise.
Then she sat up, and, as granny did not relent, she put her feet over the
edge of the sofa and began to think about dressing.

"What frock can I put on, granny?" It suddenly struck her that it would
not be very pleasant to be living in one place while all her belongings
were in another.

"The one you took off, I s'pose."

"But I can't. It isn't fit to wear till it has been washed and ironed.
It wants mending, too. I tore it dreadfully."

"Um! And who do you think is going to do all that?"

Mona stared again at her granny with perplexed and anxious eyes.
There used to be no question as to who would do all those things for her.
"I don't know," she faltered.

"Well, I can't. I haven't hardly got the strength to stand and wash my
own few things, and I'm much too bad to be starching and ironing frocks
every few days. Better your stepmother had got you a good stuff one than
such a thing as that. If she had, it wouldn't have been spoilt by your
falling on the seaweed. Nonsense, I call it!" G