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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Sowing and Sewing, by Charlotte Mary Yonge
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Sowing and Sewing
+       A Sexagesima Story
+
+
+Author: Charlotte Mary Yonge
+
+
+
+Release Date: May 2, 2010  [eBook #32200]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOWING AND SEWING***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Emmy, Juliet Sutherland, and the Project Gutenberg
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+SOWING AND SEWING.
+
+A Sexagesima Story.
+
+by
+
+CHARLOTTE M. YONGE.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+New York:
+E. P. Dutton and Co.,
+39, West Twenty-Third Street.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+PERHAPS some may read allusions to a sacred Parable underlying this
+little story. If so, I hope they will not think it an irreverent mode of
+applying the lesson.
+
+                                                     C. M. YONGE.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+          CHAPTER I.                   PAGE
+          THE SERMON                     1
+
+          CHAPTER II.
+          THE SUNDAY SCHOOL             13
+
+          CHAPTER III.
+          THE WORKING PARTY             28
+
+          CHAPTER IV.
+          TEACHER AMY                   49
+
+          CHAPTER V.
+          THE TROUSSEAU                 64
+
+          CHAPTER VI.
+          STITCH, STITCH, STITCH        79
+
+          CHAPTER VII.
+          WANDERING EYES               101
+
+          CHAPTER VIII.
+          AMY'S VISITS                 115
+
+          CHAPTER IX.
+          AWKWARD MEETINGS             127
+
+          CHAPTER X.
+          THE RECKONING                150
+
+          CHAPTER XI.
+          WHICH SHALL PROSPER?         159
+
+
+
+
+SOWING AND SEWING.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE SERMON.
+
+
+FOUR girls were together in a pleasant cottage room with a large window,
+over which fluttered some dry sticks, which would in due time bear
+clematis and Virginia creeper leaves.
+
+Three of them were Miss Lee's apprentices, and this room had been built
+out at the back of the baker's shop for them. The place was the property
+of the Lee family themselves, and nobody in Langley was more respected
+than they were. Ambrose Lee, whose name was over the baker's shop, and
+who kept a horse and cart, was always called Mr. Lee.
+
+He had married a pretty, delicate young girl, who had soon fallen into
+such hopeless ill-health, that his sister Charlotte was obliged to live
+at home to attend to her and to the shop. And when young Mrs. Lee died,
+leaving three small children, another sister, Rose, gave up her place to
+help in the care of her old father and the little ones.
+
+Rose Lee had been a sewing maid, and, being clever, had become a very
+fair dressmaker; so she took in needlework from the first, and when good
+old master Lee died, and the children had grown old enough to be more
+off her hands, she became the dressmaker and sempstress of the place,
+since there was no doubt that all she took in hand would be thoroughly
+well turned out of hand, from a child's under garment up to Mrs. and
+Miss Manners's dresses. "For," as her sister Charlotte proudly said of
+her, "the ladies had everything made down here, except one or two
+dresses from London for the fashion." Her nephews were both from home,
+one as a pupil-teacher, the other at a baker's with a superior business,
+and her niece, Amy, the only girl of the family, had begun as a
+pupil-teacher, but she had such bad headaches at the end of her first
+year that her father was afraid to let her go on studying for
+examinations, and cancelled her engagement, and thus she became an
+assistant to her aunt. Then Jessie Hollis, from the shop, came home from
+her aunt's, unwilling to go to service, and begged Miss Lee to take her
+and teach her dressmaking; and, having thus begun, she consented, rather
+less willingly, to take likewise Florence Cray from the Manners Arms,
+chiefly because she had known her mother all her life, and believed her
+to be careful of the girl; besides which, it was a very respectable
+house.
+
+As plain work, as well as dressmaking, was done, there was quite enough
+employment for all the hands, as well as for the sewing machine, at
+which Amy, a fair, delicate-looking girl, was whirring away, while
+Jessie was making the button-holes of a long _princesse_ dress, and
+Florence tacking in some lining; or rather each was pausing a little in
+her work to answer Grace Hollis, Jessie's sister, a businesslike-looking
+young person, dressed in her town-going hat and jacket, who had stepped
+in, on her way to meet the Minsterham omnibus, to ask whether Miss Lee
+wanted to have anything done for her, and likewise how many yards of
+narrow black velvet would be wanted for the trimming of her own and
+Jessie's spring dresses.
+
+Miss Lee was gone up to the house for a grand measuring of all the
+children for their new frocks; but Amy began to calculate and ask
+questions about the width and number of rows, and Jessie presently
+said--
+
+"After all, I think mine will look very well without any round the
+skirt."
+
+"Why, Jessie, I thought you said the dress you saw looked so genteel
+with the three rows----"
+
+"Yes," said Jessie; "but I have thought since--" and she hesitated and
+blushed.
+
+Amy got up from the machine, came towards her, and, laying her hand on
+her, said, gently--
+
+"I know, Jessie."
+
+"And I know, though you wanted to keep it a secret!" cried Florence. "I
+was at church too last night!"
+
+"Oh, yes, I saw you, Florence; and wasn't it beautiful?" said Amy,
+earnestly.
+
+"Most lovely! It is worth something to have a stranger here sometimes to
+get a fresh hint from!" said Florence.
+
+"I call that more than a hint," said Jessie, in a low voice. "I am so
+glad you felt it as I did, Flossy."
+
+"Felt it! You don't mean that you got hold of it? Then you can tell
+whether it was cut on the bias, and how the little puffs were put on!"
+
+"Why, what are you thinking of, Flossy?" exclaimed Amy. "Bias--puffs!
+One would think you were talking of a dress!"
+
+"Well, of course I was. Of that lovely self-trimming on that cashmere
+dress of the lady that came with Miss Manners. What--what are you
+laughing at, Grace?"
+
+"Oh! Florence," said Amy, in a disappointed tone; "we thought you meant
+the sermon."
+
+"The sermon?" said Florence, half annoyed, half puzzled; "well, it was
+a very good one; but----"
+
+"It did make one feel--oh, I don't know how!" said Jessie, much too
+eager to share her feelings with the other girls, even to perceive that
+Florence wanted to go off to the trimming.
+
+"Wasn't it beautiful--most beautiful--when he said it was not enough
+only just not to be weeds, or to be only flowers, gay and lovely to the
+eye?" said Amy.
+
+"Yes," went on Jessie; "he said that we might see there were some
+flowers just for beauty, all double, and with no fruit or good at all in
+them, but dying off into a foul mass of decay."
+
+"Ay," said Grace; "I thought of your dahlias, that, what with the rain
+and the frost, were--pah!--the nastiest mess at last."
+
+"Then he said," proceeded Jessie, "that there were some fair and comely,
+some not, but only bringing forth just their own seeds, not doing any
+real good, like people that keep themselves to themselves, and think it
+is enough to be out of mischief and do good to themselves and their
+families."
+
+"And didn't you like it," broke in Amy, "when he said that was not what
+God asked of us? He wanted us to be like the wheat, or the vine, or the
+apple, or the strawberry, some plain in blossom, some fair and lovely to
+look at, but valued for the fruit they bring forth, not selfishly, just
+to keep up their own stock, but for the support and joy and blessing of
+all!"
+
+"One's heart just burnt within one," continued Jessie, "when he bade us
+each one to go home and think what we could do to bring forth fruit for
+the Master, some thirty, some sixty, some an hundredfold. Not only just
+keeping oneself straight, but doing something for Christ through His
+members."
+
+"Only think of its being for Christ Himself," said Amy softly.
+
+"Well," said Grace, "I thought we might take turns to go to Miss
+Manners's missionary working parties. I never gave in to them before,
+but I shall not be comfortable now unless I do something. And was that
+what you meant about the velvet trimming, Jessie? It will save--"
+
+"Fifteen pence," said Jessie.
+
+"Very well--or you may say threepence more. So we can put that into the
+box, if you like. I must be going now, and look sharp if I'm to catch
+the bus. So good-bye, all of you."
+
+"Oh! but won't you have the self-trimming," broke in Florence. "Perhaps
+she'll be there on Friday night, and then we might amongst us make out
+how it is done."
+
+"Florence Cray, for shame!" said Grace. "I do believe you minded nothing
+but that dress all through that sermon."
+
+"Well," said Florence, who was a good-humoured girl, "there was no
+helping it, when there it was just opposite in the aisle, and I'd never
+seen one like it; and as to the sermon, you've just given it to me over
+again, you've got it so pat; and I'll go to the missionary work meeting
+too, Grace, and very like the young lady will be there, and I can see
+her trimming."
+
+"If you go for that, I would go to a fashion-book at once," said Grace;
+"but I must really be off now, I've not another minute to stop."
+
+"Oh dear, I forgot," cried Florence, jumping up, "I was to ask you to
+call for our best tea-pot at Bilson's. And my mother wants a dozen--"
+and there her voice was lost as she followed Grace out of the room
+through the shop, and even along the road, discoursing on her
+commissions.
+
+Amy and Jessie were left together, and Amy stood up and said:
+
+"Dear, I am so glad you felt it as I did!"
+
+"One could not help it, if one listened at all," said Jessie. "Amy, I
+must be doing something for His sake. I can't rest now without it. You
+teach at the Sunday school. Don't you think I might?"
+
+Amy meditated a little.
+
+"I think they would make up a class for you. When Miss Pemberton's niece
+goes away, the class she takes has to be joined to her aunt's, and that
+makes a large one."
+
+"Then will you speak to Miss Manners for me?" asked Jessie. "Are they
+little girls or big ones?"
+
+"Oh, that's the second class. They would be sure not to give you that,"
+said Amy, as if she thought the aspiration very high, not to say
+presumptuous. "Perhaps Margaret Roller, the pupil-teacher, you know, may
+take that. Then I should have hers and you mine. They are dear little
+girls, some of them, only Susan Bray always wants a tight hand over her,
+Polly Smithers is so stupid, and Fanny Morris is so sly, one always has
+to be on the watch."
+
+"Here she comes," said Florence, who was the nearest to the window, and
+the entrance of Aunt Rose, a brisk, fair little woman, young looking for
+her age, recalled all her "young ladies," as Florence and Jessie, and
+perhaps Amy likewise, preferred being called, to recollect that
+stitching was, at that moment at least, the first thing to be attended
+to.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.
+
+
+PERHAPS Amy's business-like tone about the school classes fell a little
+flat upon Jessie's ear. She had not been to a Sunday school in her
+childhood. Her father had been a prosperous upholsterer's foreman in
+Minsterham, and Grace and Jessie had gone to an "academy" till, when
+they were sixteen and fourteen years old, their father died of a fever,
+and their mother, who had a cottage of her own at Langley, resolved on
+coming back and setting up a small shop there for all sorts of wares,
+with Clementina Hollis over the door.
+
+Jessie was about eighteen, two years younger than her sister. She had
+always been a bright, quick, lively girl, but never very thoughtful, and
+much too inquisitive, till her curiosity had brought on her a terrible
+accident, which had kept her laid up in a hospital for many weeks. She
+had come home quite well at last, and much improved. A fellow patient,
+and likewise a lady who had visited her and lent her books, had both
+made much impression on her. She cared about right and wrong as she had
+never done before, was more useful at home, and tried to restrain her
+inclination to find out all about everything; she said her prayers more
+carefully, went to Church more often, and heeded more what she heard;
+and altogether she was what her mother called an altered girl. This was
+Lent, and a clergyman was staying with Mr. Somers to preach a course of
+sermons on the Friday evenings, and it was one of these that had so much
+struck these young girls, and had put into their minds for the first
+time, with any real force, the full sense that the true Christian must
+seek to work for the good of the household of Christ as well as his own
+household, and that "bringing forth good fruit" does not simply mean
+taking care of oneself, and trying to save one's own soul.
+
+The language had been beautiful and stirring, and there was a burning
+desire in more than one heart to be doing something for Christ's sake.
+The first thing that Jessie thought of was the Sunday school. She had
+read books about it, and her fellow patient was full of ardour about
+"training little lambs," as she called it, so that it seemed the most
+beautiful and suitable task she could undertake.
+
+Amy Lee, on the other hand, hardly knew how to spend a Sunday without
+the school. She had been a scholar there until she had quite outgrown
+the first class, and had been more than a year confirmed, and then she
+had become a teacher of the little ones. She liked the employment, and
+was fond of the children; she would have been sorry to drop the
+connection with Miss Manners or with Miss Joy, the mistress, and the
+rest of the school staff; she was pleased to work for and with Mr.
+Somers and Miss Manners, and she had been trained to be reverent and
+attentive; but it had never occurred to her to think of it as more than
+a nice and good thing to do, or to look on it as a work undertaken for
+Christ's sake.
+
+"Teaching at school, I do that already," she said to herself, when Aunt
+Rose's entrance had made her work her machine more and her tongue less.
+"I must get something more to do. Oh! I know. There's poor old
+half-blind Mrs. Long. She is left to herself terribly, they do say, and
+I'll go and tidy her up, and see to her and read to her every day. I
+could do it before my work and after. Maybe I might get her to be a
+better old woman than she ever has been. Books say that nothing so
+softens an old woman as a nice, bright young girl coming in to make much
+of her, and I'm sure I'm nice and bright--not so much in myself, but
+compared with the whole lot of Longs."
+
+So Amy told her plan to her aunts, as soon as Florence and Jessie had
+gone home to dinner.
+
+The two aunts looked at one another, and Aunt Charlotte said, "Did the
+sermon make you think of that?" in rather a doubtful tone.
+
+"Yes," said Amy. "One seemed to long to be doing some good, not be only
+an empty flower, as he said."
+
+"Mrs. Long," said Aunt Rose; "she ain't a very nice person to fix
+upon."
+
+"But no one wants it so much, aunt," said Amy.
+
+"That's true," said Aunt Charlotte. "Well, Amy, we must think about it,
+and speak to your father. Run out now, and gather a bit of parsley for
+his cheese."
+
+Amy knew it was to get her out of the way, and felt rather disappointed
+that the proposal was not seized upon at once, and applauded.
+
+"She's a good girl," said Aunt Rose.
+
+"Well, so she is, and I don't like to stand in her way," said Aunt
+Charlotte.
+
+"But to pitch on old Sally Long of all folk in the world!" said Rose.
+
+"There's no doubt but she does want something done for her; but I
+misdoubt me if she will choose our Amy to do it. Besides, I don't like
+her tongue. That's what daunts me most."
+
+"Yes. If she took it kind of the girl, she would never be satisfied
+without talking to her of all the old backbiting tales that ever was!
+And we that have kept our girl up from hearing of all evil just like a
+lady--"
+
+"What is it?" said Ambrose Lee, himself coming in, after putting up his
+cart.
+
+"Why, that sermon last night has worked upon our Amy, so that she wants
+to do something extra," said Aunt Rose.
+
+"A right down good sermon it was," said the father; "a bit flowery, to
+suit the maidens, I suppose."
+
+"And she said it all off to me, quite beautiful," said Rose, who had
+stayed at home.
+
+"And what does the child want to be doing? I won't have her go back to
+her books again, to worry her head into aching."
+
+"No, that's not what she wants. Her notion is to run in and out and see
+to old Widow Long."
+
+"Widow Long!" exclaimed the baker. "Why, she's got as slandering a
+tongue as any in the parish! Give the poor old soul a loaf or a sup of
+broth if you like, but I'll not have my girl running in and out to hear
+all the gossip of the place, and worse."
+
+"I knew you would say so, Ambrose," returned Charlotte. "All the same,
+the child's thought shames me that I've never done anything for the poor
+old thing; and she won't harm me."
+
+Ambrose chuckled a little. "I don't know but aunt likes a spice of
+gossip as much as her niece. 'Tis she tells us all the news."
+
+"Well, I can get plenty of that in the shop, without going to Dame Long
+for it," said Charlotte, laughing. "I like the real article, genuine and
+unadulterated."
+
+They were laughing at Aunt Charlotte's wit when Amy came in, and she
+looked from one to the other, afraid they were laughing at her project,
+and ready to be offended or hurt. She did not like it when her father
+said, "Look here, my girl, Aunt Charlotte says Dame Long's dish of
+tongue is too spicy for you, and she must have it for herself."
+
+"I don't know what you mean, father," said Amy, nearly crying, "I didn't
+want it for that."
+
+"No, you didn't, child," said Charlotte; "but come along here, I want
+you to help me dish up."
+
+Amy came with the tears standing in her eyes into the back kitchen,
+vexed, angered, and ready to be cross. Her aunt set her to prepare the
+dish for the Irish stew, while she said, "Father was at his jokes with
+me, Amy. He don't like you to be running in and out to old Sally Long by
+yourself; no more does your Aunt Rosy nor I; but the poor old body
+didn't ought to be neglected, and the sermon was just as much for me as
+for you, so I've made up my mind to look after her a bit, and you may
+come in with me sometimes if you like."
+
+"That was not what I meant," said Amy, rather fretfully.
+
+"I dare say not. There, mind what you are about, or you'll have that
+dish down. Where's the flour? Come, now, Amy, don't be daunted, if you
+can't do good quite in your own way; why shouldn't you ask Miss Dora
+now?"
+
+Amy muttered and pouted. "I'm not such a child now!"
+
+"Ain't you then, to be making such a pout at not getting just your own
+way."
+
+Down came the dish with a bounce on the table, and away ran Amy up the
+stairs, where she cried and choked, and thought how hard it was that she
+should be hindered, and laughed at, and scolded, when she wanted to do
+good, and bring forth the fruit of good works.
+
+She heard Aunt Rose ask where she was, and her Aunt Charlotte answer,
+"Oh! she will be down in a minute."
+
+She felt it kind that no one said that she was in the sulks. The relief
+did her good; she could not bear that any one should guess what was
+amiss. So she washed her face in haste, tidied her hair and collar, and
+hoped that she looked as if she had gone up for nothing else.
+
+Perhaps her father had had a hint, and she was his great pet, so he took
+care that the apprentices should not suspect that Amy had been "upset."
+So he began to tell what had made him late at home. He had overtaken
+poor Widow Smithers in much trouble, for she had had a note from the
+hospital to say that her little boy, Edwin, must be discharged as
+incurable. It was a hip complaint, and he could not walk, and she had
+not been able to find any way of getting him home.
+
+It so happened that all the gentlefolks were out for the day, and she
+did not get her letter in time before the market people set off. She was
+indeed too poor to hire a conveyance, and was going in, fearing that she
+might have to carry this nine-year-old boy herself five miles unless she
+could get a lift. So Mr. Lee had driven her into the town, and after
+doing his work there, had come up to the hospital, and had taken her in
+with poor little Edwin, who was laid on a shawl in the cart, but cried a
+good deal at the jolting. The doctors said that they could do no more
+for the poor little fellow, and she would have to take him home and do
+the best she could for him.
+
+It fell very hard upon her, poor woman, for she was obliged to go out to
+work every day, since she had four children, and only Harry, the one who
+was older then Edwin, earned anything--and indeed he only got three
+shillings a week for minding some cows on the common. The two girls
+_must_ go to school, and indeed they were too young to be of much use
+and the boy would have to be left alone all day, except for the dinner
+hour, as he had been before the hospital had been tried for him.
+
+"There, Amy," said Aunt Charlotte, as they were clearing away the dinner
+things after the menfolk had gone out, "there's something you could do.
+It would be a real kindness to go in and see after that poor little
+man."
+
+"Yes," added Rose; "you might run in at dinner time, and I'd spare you a
+little time then, and you might read to him, and cheer him up--yes, and
+teach him a bit too."
+
+"Edwin Smithers was always a very tiresome, stupid little boy," said
+Amy, rather crossly, from her infant school recollections.
+
+"Then he will want help all the more," said Aunt Rose, and it sounded
+almost like mimicry of what Amy had said of old Mrs. Long.
+
+She did not like it at all. It is the devices of our own heart that we
+prefer to follow, whether for good or harm, and specially when we think
+them good. And yet we specially pray that we may do all such good works
+as our Lord hath _prepared for us to walk in_, as if we were to rejoice
+in having our opportunities set out before us, yet the teaching a dull
+little boy of whom she had had experience in the infant school, did not
+seem to her half such interesting work as converting an old woman of
+whom strange things were said.
+
+However, Amy was on the whole a good girl, though she had her little
+tempers, and did not guard against them as she ought, thinking that what
+was soon over did not signify.
+
+By and by, Jessie came back radiant with gladness, and found a moment
+to say, before Florence Cray came in, that her mother was quite
+agreeable to her teaching in the Sunday school, if Miss Manners liked
+it. She had gone there herself for some years when she and Miss Manners
+were both young, and she was well pleased that her daughter should be
+helpful there.
+
+Amy, who was fond of Jessie, was delighted to think of having her
+company all the way to school, and her little fit of displeasure melted
+quite away. But when Florence was heard coming in, both girls were
+silent on their plans, knowing that she would only laugh at their
+wishing to do anything so dull.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE WORKING PARTY.
+
+
+"ARE these fruits of the sermon on Friday night?" said Miss Manners to
+Mr. Somers, as they finished winding up their parish accounts on Monday
+morning. "Not only, as you know, here is Grace Hollis wanting to join
+Mrs. Somers's Tuesday working parties, Jessie begging to help at the
+Sunday school; but I find that good little Amy Lee went and sat with
+poor Edwin Smithers for half an hour on Sunday after church, showing him
+pictures, and she has promised his mother to come and look in on him
+every day. It is very nice of the Lees to have thought of it, and to
+spare her."
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Somers, "the Lees are always anxious to do right."
+
+"I had a talk with Charlotte just now. She came to get some flannel for
+Mrs. Long. She says she will make it up for her, if the old woman can
+have it out of the club. Well, she says it is quite striking how all
+those girls have been moved by Mr. Soulsby's sermon on Friday evening.
+Amy came home and nearly said it all off to her Aunt Rose, and the girls
+were all talking about it in the workroom in the morning, full of
+earnestness to make some effort."
+
+"I saw they were looking very attentive," said Mr. Somers. "Shall you
+accept Jessie Hollis's help?"
+
+"I think I can make a class up for her."
+
+"I suppose it would be a pity to check her, but do you imagine that she
+knows anything?"
+
+"I don't know; but she is not at all a stupid girl, and she cannot go
+far wrong with the questions on the Catechism and Gospels that I shall
+give her. Indeed I had thought of asking her and Margaret Roller, and,
+perhaps, Amy Lee, to come and prepare the lessons here on Friday
+evenings after church."
+
+"A good plan," said Mr. Somers, "if it be not giving you too much to
+do."
+
+"Not a bit, especially at this time of year, when nobody wants me in the
+evenings. My only doubt is whether it is not keeping the girls out too
+late, but I will see whether it can be managed. The children might be
+better taught, and the teachers might learn something themselves in this
+indirect way."
+
+Perhaps this was Miss Dora's way of acting on the sermon, but she could
+not begin that week, as a friend was coming to spend the Friday with
+her.
+
+Meantime Grace Hollis had joined the working party that met every
+Tuesday afternoon for an hour to make clothes for a very poor district
+in London. She had been sometimes known to say that it was all waste of
+time to make things and send them away to thriftless, shiftless folk;
+but she had heard something of the love of our neighbour, and our
+membership with the rest of our Lord's Body, which had touched her
+heart. So she brought her thimble and needle, to join the working party
+who sat round the Rectory dining-table. Mrs. Somers and Miss Manners
+shook hands, made her welcome, and found her a seat and some work. Grace
+looked about her to be sure who the party were. Mrs. Nowell, the
+gardener's wife, sat next to her. Then came little Miss Agnes from the
+Hall, sewing hard away, and Lucy Drew from Chalk-pit Farm, who was about
+her age, next to her, and old Miss Pemberton knitting.
+
+"A mixed lot," said Grace to herself, and then her eye lit upon deformed
+Naomi Norris, of whom she did not approve at all. Did not the girl come
+of a low dissenting family, and had not her father the presumption to
+keep a little shop in Hazel Lane which took away half the custom,
+especially as they pretended to make toffee? Meanwhile here was Miss
+Wenlock, the governess at the squire's, and Miss Dora reading aloud to
+the party in turn. It was the history of some mission work in London,
+and Miss Lee, who was there, listened with great pleasure, as did many
+of the others. Indeed she well might, for her eldest sister's son hoped
+one day to be a missionary. But Grace was not used to being read to,
+and, as she said, "it fidgeted her sadly," and she was wondering all the
+time what mistakes mother would make in the shop without her, and she
+began to be haunted with a doubt whether she had put out a parcel of
+raisins that Farmer Drew's man was to call for. The worry about it
+prevented her from attending to a word that was read; indeed she could
+hardly keep herself from jumping up, making up an excuse, and rushing
+home to see about the raisins!
+
+Then she greatly disapproved of the shape of the bedgown she had been
+set to make, and did not believe it would sit properly. It was ladies'
+cutting towards which she felt contemptuous, and yet she would have
+thought it impolite to interfere. Besides, it might make the whole
+sitting go on longer, and Grace was burning to get home. At last the
+reading ended, but oh! my patience, that creature Naomi was actually
+putting herself forward to ask some nonsensical question, where some
+place was, and Miss Agnes must needs get a map, and every one go and
+look at it--Grace too, not to be behindhand or uncivil to the young
+ladies; but had not she had enough of maps and such useless stupid
+things long ago when she left school at Miss Perkins's?
+
+When at last this was over, Mrs. Somers came and spoke to her while she
+was putting on her hat, and thanked her pleasantly, saying that she was
+afraid that beginning in the middle of a book made it less interesting,
+but that one day more would finish it. Then she added "I don't like the
+pattern of that bedgown, do you?"
+
+"No, Mrs. Somers, not at all," replied Grace. "It quite went against me
+to put good work into it."
+
+"I wonder whether you could help us to a better shape next time," said
+Mrs. Somers. "We should be very much obliged to you. This pattern came
+out of a needlework book, and I am not satisfied about it."
+
+Grace promised, and went away in better humour, but more because she had
+been made important than because she cared for what she had been doing.
+She was glad no one could say she had been behindhand with her service,
+but it was a burthen to her, and she did not open her mind to enter into
+it so as to make it otherwise.
+
+Indeed, her mind was more full of her accounts and the bad debts, and of
+the cheapest way of getting in her groceries than of anything else. As
+she walked back through the village she wondered whether Mrs. Somers and
+Miss Manners would send to her mother's for their brown sugar this
+summer. That would make it worth while to go to a better but more
+expensive place, and have in a larger stock; and Grace went on reckoning
+the risk all the time, and wondering whether the going to the working
+parties would secure the ladies' custom. In that case the time would not
+be wasted. It did not come into Grace's head whether what she had
+thought of for the service of God she might be turning to the service of
+Mammon, if she only just endured it for the sake of standing well with
+the gentry. But then, was it not her duty to consider her shop and her
+mother's interest?
+
+She was quite vexed and angry when she saw Jessie go and fetch the big
+Family Bible that evening, turning off the whole pile of lesson-books to
+which it formed the base.
+
+"Now what can you be doing that for?" she said sharply.
+
+"I want to prepare my lesson for to-morrow," said Jessie.
+
+"And is not a little Bible good enough for you, without upsetting the
+whole table?"
+
+"My Bible has got no references," said Jessie.
+
+"And what do little children like that want of references? If you are to
+be turning the house upside down and wasting time like that over
+preparing as you call it, I don't know as ma will let you undertake
+it."
+
+"I have ironed all the collars and cuffs, Grace," said Jessie; "yes, and
+looked over the stockings."
+
+Grace had no more to say; she knew Jessie had wonderful eyes for a
+ladder or a hole; but it worried her and gave her a sense of disrespect
+that the pyramid which surmounted the big Bible should be interfered
+with, or that the Book itself should have its repose interfered with
+"for a pack of dirty children," when it had never been opened before
+except to register christenings, or to be spread out and read when some
+near relation died, as part of the mourning ceremony.
+
+It really made her feel as if something unfortunate had happened to see
+the large print pages on the little round table, and her sister peering
+into the references and looking them out in her own little Bible, then
+diligently marking them.
+
+Her mother, too, asked what Jessie was about, and though she did not
+say anything against her employment, their looking on, and the
+expression on Grace's face, worried Jessie so much that she could not
+think, and only put a slip of paper into her own book at each she found.
+The chapter she had chosen was the Parable of the Sower, on which she
+had once heard a sermon. She was amazed to find how many parallel
+passages there were, and how beautifully they explained one another when
+she made time for comparing them on Sunday morning. She saw herself
+beforehand expounding them to the children, and winning their hearts, as
+her friend in the hospital had described, and she was quite ready in her
+neat black silk and fur jacket, with a little blue velvet hat, when Amy
+Lee came to call for her, in her grey merino, black cloth coat, and
+little hat to match.
+
+They met Miss Manners at the school door, and were pleasantly greeted,
+and taken into the large cheerful room, all hung round with maps and
+pictures, where the classes were assembling, and one or two of the other
+teachers had come.
+
+The bell was heard ringing, and while the children trooped in, Miss
+Manners showed Jessie a chair with some books laid open upon it, the
+class register on the top, and said:
+
+"I am sorry there has not been time to talk over your work this week;
+but I have laid out the books for you, and if you are in any difficulty
+come and ask me."
+
+By this time the children had come in and taken their places, and Jessie
+was pleased to see that her class was of children of eight or nine years
+old--not such little ones as Amy had threatened her with. Miss Manners
+went to the harmonium and gave out a Sunday morning hymn, which was very
+sweetly sung, and then she read prayers, everybody kneeling, and making
+the responses, so that Jessie enjoyed it greatly, and felt quite
+refreshed by the prayer for a blessing on the teachers and the taught.
+Then Miss Manners told the eight little girls who stood in a row that
+Miss Hollis would teach them, and she hoped they would be very good and
+steady and obedient, and say their lessons perfectly.
+
+Jessie knew all but two who came from the other end of the parish, and
+were not customers of her mother--at least she knew what families they
+belonged to, and had only to learn their Christian names from her list.
+
+"Collect, please teacher," said the first girl, Susan Bray, very much in
+the voice in which she would have said "Candles, please miss," in the
+shop.
+
+The Prayer-book was uppermost, and Jessie found she had to hear the
+Collect for the day repeated by five perfectly, by two rather badly, and
+one broke down altogether. The question-book lay open under it. Some of
+the questions were very easy, but of others Jessie was not sure that the
+children were right when they replied to some quite glibly, and she was
+not sure how to help them in others.
+
+Then followed the opening of books again. Jessie was longing to give out
+all she had to say about the Sower, and began bidding them turn to it in
+St. Matthew, but Susan Bray stopped her most decisively. "Oh! please
+teacher, we've done that ever so long ago. We always reads the Gospel
+for the day, and here's the question-book, and it's got answers." And
+she thrust it right under the nose of Jessie, who by this time did not
+quite love Miss Susan Bray. She had plainly been sharp enough to see
+when her teacher was at fault.
+
+The children read the Gospel for the day. It was Refreshing Sunday, so
+it was not a difficult one; the children were ready with the answers
+till the application came, and then Jessie had again to help them, which
+she did by reading the printed answers and making them repeat them after
+her, word for word. While she was doing this with Mary Smithers, who
+certainly was dulness itself, at one end of the class, there was a
+whispering at the other, and she saw two children trying on each other's
+gloves, and she quickly put an end to that, and went on with another
+question and answer. The moment her eye was off Susan Bray and Lily
+Bell, however, they began comparing some gay cards. Jessie turned on
+them: "You are playing with those things. Give them to me."
+
+Lily Bell began to cry, and Susan pertly said, "It's our markers,
+teacher."
+
+"I don't care. I won't have you idle. Give them to me, this instant."
+
+Just then the church bell began to ring, and there was a general
+moving; but Jessie would not be beaten, and caused the two cards to be
+given up to her. The girls both cried with all their might while she was
+marking the class down, and, as they no doubt intended, Miss Manners
+came to see what was the matter.
+
+"Please, ma'am, teacher has taken away our markers, and we shan't know
+where our Psalms is."
+
+"They were playing with them," said Jessie.
+
+"We wasn't. We was finding our Psalms," said Susan.
+
+"You should not have done so while Miss Hollis was teaching," said Miss
+Manners. "I hope, if she is good enough to give them back to you, that
+you will attend better in the afternoon."
+
+Jessie felt it all a little flat and disappointing, all the more so that
+Amy Lee joined her, and talked all the way to church about the
+children, who had all passed through her hands when she was a pupil
+teacher, telling all their little tiresome ways. It seemed to rub off
+all the gloss, and to change her scheme of feeding the young lambs for
+the Great Shepherd's sake into a mere struggle with tiresome, fidgety
+children.
+
+Still her hopes and her spirits rose again at church. She had her
+expounding of the Sower on her mind, and hoped yet to deliver it when
+she went to afternoon school; but there proved to be the Catechism and a
+whole set of hymns to be said, and questions to be asked about them.
+These questions did not come very readily to such an unpractised tongue
+as hers, and she thought she could lead off into the discourse she had
+thought out over the Bible. But she had hardly gone through twenty words
+before she saw a squabble going on between Lily Bell and Mary Smithers,
+and she had no sooner separated them, and taken up the thread of her
+discourse about grace being sown and watered in our hearts, than Susan
+Bray popped up up with "Please, teacher, it's time to read to us--Its
+_Miss Angelina_," pointing to a little gay story-book.
+
+"You should not be rude, and interrupt," said Jessie; whereupon Susan
+pouted, the two idlest began to play with each other's fingers, and, as
+soon as she paused to take breath, Lily Bell jumped up, and brought her
+the book open.
+
+She had to give up the point, and begin to read something that did not
+seem to her nearly so improving as her own discourse, as it was all
+about a doll left behind upon a heath; but the children listened to it
+eagerly.
+
+Was this all the good she was to do by sacrificing all her time on
+Sunday? Like Grace, she felt much inclined to give it up, and all the
+more when Florence Cray came into the work-room the next morning,
+laughing and saying--
+
+"Well, the impudence of some folk! There was that there little Bray! I
+hear that she should say that Miss Hollis was put to teach her, and she
+warn't agoing to care for one as wasn't a lady."
+
+"I can make her mind me fast enough," said Amy.
+
+"O, you are bred to be a teacher," said Florence; "that doesn't count.
+Nobody else should trouble themselves with the tiresome little
+ungrateful things. I'm sure I wouldn't; but then I don't set up for
+goodness, nor want to be thought better than other folk."
+
+Jessie had known that something of this kind would be said, and was
+prepared for it; but the child's speech vexed her sorely. However, she
+said--
+
+"I'm not going to be beat by a chit like that," and at that moment Miss
+Lee came in, and that kind of chatter ceased.
+
+But Jessie's cheeks burned over her work, and she thought how foolish
+she had been to let her fancy for doing good, and trying to live up to
+the sermon, lead her where she was allowed to do nothing, but get
+herself teased and insulted, right and left.
+
+Should she give up? That would look so silly. Yes, but would it not
+serve Miss Manners right for giving her such stupid, unspiritual kind of
+teaching to do, and also serve the children right for their pertness and
+ingratitude?
+
+No, she could not give up in this way. She had begun, and she must go
+on, at least till she had some reason for giving up respectably and
+civilly--only she wished she had known how unlike it was to what she had
+expected before she had undertaken it!
+
+Then she was sensible of a certain odd, uppish, self-asserting feeling
+within her. She used to have it in old times, but she had learnt to
+distrust it, and to know that it generally came when she was in a bad
+way.
+
+Was she thinking of pleasing herself, or of offering a little work to
+please God, and try to let the good seed turn to good fruit? Ah! but was
+it all a mistake? Was becoming a mark for Susan Bray to worry, doing any
+good at all?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+TEACHER AMY.
+
+
+IT was a pleasant sight for Amy when poor little Edwin Smithers's pale
+face brightened up, as she opened his door.
+
+He was not like the rough little monkey she had known at the infant
+school, who had only seemed to want to learn as little, and to play as
+many tricks, as he could. In the hospital, the attention kind people had
+paid him had quickened up his understanding, and mended his manners. He
+had been petted and amused there, and the being left alone in the dull
+cottage was a sad trial to him. His mother had regular work, and so had
+his elder brother, but this kept them out all day from eight till five,
+except that Mrs. Smithers kept Friday to do her own washing in. She was
+obliged to be away even at dinner time, as her work lay far from home,
+and she gave her next-door neighbour, Mrs. Rowe, a shilling a week to
+keep up the fire, look in on the sick boy, and give him his dinner.
+
+She was unlucky in her neighbour. Many women would have gladly given far
+more kind service for no pay at all, but they were too far off, and Mrs.
+Rowe made it a rule to "do nothing for nothing."
+
+His brother and sisters came in for a little while at twelve, their
+dinner time, but they wanted to go out to play, and had no notion of
+amusing him; indeed he was glad when they went away; Charlie clumped
+about so, and made such a noise, and little Jenny would take away his
+picture books or the toys that had been given him in the hospital.
+
+Then Polly would call her a naughty girl, and snatch them from her, and
+so his little wooden horse lost its head, and his railway train was
+uncoupled, and one wheel pulled off; and when old Mrs. Rowe found him
+crying, all she said was, "Dear! dear! don't ye fret now, don't ye!" and
+when that did not make him stop crying, she said he was a bad boy to
+make such a work about nothing. When she was a girl, nobody had frail
+trade like that, all painted and gaudy, to play with; a bit of an
+oyster-shell or a crab's claw was enow for them. He had got into such a
+caddle as never was too!
+
+So she began to shake up his couch, not in the least guessing how she
+was hurting and jarring his poor hip; and when he cried out and tried to
+drive her away, she thought it was all naughtiness, and declared that he
+was such a bad boy that she should go away and leave him to himself.
+
+The Lees dined at one, and work did not begin till two; so Amy had a
+good half-hour to spend on the little boy before she was wanted again.
+
+"Going to see Ted, be ye?" said Mrs. Rowe, as she stood at her door,
+while Amy opened the wicket. "A proper fractious little to-äd he be,
+upon my word an' honour! They do spile children in them hospitals, so as
+one can't do nothing with 'em."
+
+Amy looked at Mrs. Rowe, a very clean woman, but with a face and fists
+that looked as if they had been cut out of the toughest part of an old
+pollard ash, and a mouth that shut up like the snap of a gin. "Poor
+little fellow!" said Amy, and in she went.
+
+She was on her knees at once by the poor little boy, coaxing him and
+comforting him, and feeding him with some of the stew that Aunt
+Charlotte had kept warm for him. Then he told how Polly had taken away
+his horse and his train and broken them. Amy looked about, and
+presently found the wheel. A little hooking together was all the repair
+the train wanted, and Edwin was soon happy with it; while, as to the
+horse, he was past Amy's present mending, but she would take it home,
+and next time father had out the glue-pot she would put on the head.
+
+Then Amy brought out a little book with the early Bible history in
+pictures. She showed Edwin one every day when she came, and told him
+about it whenever he did not know the story before, or helped him to
+enter a little more into it. She was surprised sometimes to find that he
+had carried notions away from school even when she had thought him only
+dull and giddy. Then he was pleased to say over the hymns he had learnt
+in the infant school, and to talk a little about it. Amy was quite
+surprised to find how his mind had grown since he had been ill, and how
+pleased he was to be taught a little verse of prayer to say when he was
+in pain.
+
+She made him quite comfortable, filled up his mug of water, which the
+other children had upset, put some primroses in a cup where he could
+look at them, wrote a copy on his slate, and ruled some lines, caught
+the cat and put her before him, found the place in his easy story-book,
+and left him with a kiss, promising to come again to-morrow.
+
+It was very pleasant to be the bright spot in that poor little life; and
+Amy that afternoon stitched into little Miss Hilda's tucks, to the whirr
+of her machine, a whole pensive castle in the air about the dear little
+fellow who was not long for this world, and whose pillow was cheered and
+his soul trained for Paradise by his dear teacher, who came day by day
+to lead him in the path to Heaven. The tears came into her eyes at the
+thought of how beautiful and touching it would all be--how she would
+lay a wreath of white roses on his coffin, and----
+
+"What are you winking about, Amy? Go nearer the window if you want more
+light," said Aunt Rose, in a brisk, business-like voice, not at all like
+her dreams.
+
+Amy was glad to move, feeling a little ashamed of being detected in
+crying beforehand about her own good works; and as she approached the
+window, she looked out over the lemon-plant and exclaimed--"There's Miss
+Manners!"
+
+Miss Manners was really coming into the shop, and her little Skye
+terrier was already running on into the work-room, for he was great
+friends with Amy; he sniffed about, sat up, and gave his paw, and let
+her show off his tricks while his mistress was talking to Aunt
+Charlotte.
+
+Then she came on, nodded kindly a little greeting to each as they all
+rose, and said that she had been thinking that it would be a good thing
+for all the teachers to meet for half an hour before evensong on Fridays
+and look over their Sunday work together, so as to make it chime
+together. She said she found it was done at Ellerby, and was very
+helpful to all; and perhaps, when he had time, Mr. Somers would come in
+and help them. If they looked over the subjects beforehand, they could
+note the difficulties, and then she could refer to books, or ask Mr.
+Somers.
+
+Amy and Jessie both uttered some thanks, and Aunt Rose observed that it
+was very kind in Miss Dora, and that it would be very nice for the
+girls. Florence did not speak, but they saw her face and the gesture of
+her foot, and when Miss Lee walked out with the lady through the garden,
+Florence broke out--
+
+"Well, how fond some folks are of being put to school, to be sure!"
+
+"'Tisn't school," said Amy, "it is reading with Miss Manners in her
+drawing-room."
+
+"O yes; she makes you think yourselves ladies just to keep on grinding
+you at the teaching for ever; but I likes my fun when my work's done. I
+don't wonder at Amy Lee--she knows nothing better than sitting poked up
+and prim in Miss Manners's room; but for you, Jessie Hollis, who have
+seen a bit of the world, I should have thought you'd have more spirit
+than not even to be let to teach half a dozen dirty children without
+having your instructions."
+
+Here Miss Lee returned, and Florence applied herself to tacking in the
+lining again, while Jessie muttered to herself, "If I'm to teach them at
+all, I'd rather do it properly."
+
+Jessie really wished it. Perhaps the notion of seeing the inside of Miss
+Manners's drawing-room made it doubly pleasant, for Jessie had eyes that
+really could not help taking note of everything, though there was no
+harm in that when she kept them in due control. She had been in the
+dining-room before, and she hoped much that the class would be in the
+other room, though she was half ashamed of caring.
+
+Grace came home better satisfied on Tuesday, because her patterns had
+been much appreciated, though she still said the reading worrited her,
+and Naomi Norris gave herself airs.
+
+Jessie and Amy, however, went together on Friday, and found Margaret
+Roller, the pupil teacher, and Miss Pemberton, an elderly farmer's
+daughter, who always taught the little ones on Sunday, were ready there,
+and in the drawing-room.
+
+How pretty it was, with fresh delicate soft pink and white cretonne
+covers, and curtains worked with--was it really a series of old nursery
+tales? And coloured tiles, with Æsop's fables round the fireplace,
+pictures, books, and pretty things that all looked as if they had a
+history. Jessie's bright eyes took note of all in a flash, and then she
+tried to command them. Miss Manners gave them all their greeting,
+settled them all comfortably, and then began by reading to them a short
+paper in a little book upon the spirit of the whole Sunday, asking them
+in turn to look out and read the texts referred to, which Margaret and
+Amy did with a rapidity that astonished Jessie.
+
+Once she lost the thread in wondering what was looking out of a
+half-opened basket; but she caught herself up, and found that there was
+infinitely more connection and meaning in the passages appointed for the
+Sunday than she had ever guessed.
+
+Then Miss Manners asked whether they had any questions to ask; Margaret
+had one or two, which sounded very hard to Jessie, and she would never
+have thought of. It was the Fifth Sunday in Lent for which they were
+preparing, and they were respecting the unusually long and difficult
+Gospel for the day. Margaret wanted to know whether the words "By whom
+do your sons cast them out?" really meant that devils were actually cast
+out by the Jews. Miss Manners thought they were, and she looked out, and
+showed Margaret, a very curious account of the seal and sacred words of
+exorcism which were supposed to come from Solomon; but she advised the
+teachers not to dwell much on this branch of the subject, but to draw
+out most the portion about the strong man armed, and the warning against
+the return of Satan to the soul whence he had been once driven out.
+
+Then Jessie observed that she had not thought such things happened in
+these days, and Miss Manners had to explain to her how the possession
+then permitted was here treated as an allegory to all times, of the
+evil once cast off returning again if not resolutely excluded by prayer
+and a strong purpose blessed by the grace of God.
+
+It soon became plain to Jessie that she was ignorant of much which the
+others knew quite well, and when the Church bell began to chime, and all
+rose to go, she obtained a moment in which to say, with something like a
+tear in her eye--
+
+"Indeed, Miss Manners, I ought not to have undertaken it. I see I am not
+fit to teach."
+
+"I do not think you can tell without a longer trial," was the answer,
+kindly given.
+
+"But I am so ignorant!" said Jessie. "There is so much in these things
+that I never thought of, and the others seem to know all about it."
+
+"It has been their regular Sunday school round for years," said Miss
+Manners, "so it would be strange if they did not. But perhaps you will
+do all the better for coming to it fresh; and I am sure you are willing
+to take pains and prepare."
+
+"Yes," said Jessie, slowly, "if----You'll excuse me, Miss Manners,
+but----"
+
+"Please say it, Jessie," said the lady; "or shall I say it for you? This
+asking idle children very simple questions does not seem to you to be
+spiritual enough to be doing much good?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am, if you will excuse me. I thought there was to be more
+expounding of Scripture."
+
+"We must do what we can to get the children to attend to," said Miss
+Manners. "Even if we could get them to sit still while we expounded, I
+am afraid they would not attend or take in what we said. Nothing is of
+use with such young things but keeping them on the alert with
+questions, and trying to keep up their attention by being alive with
+them ourselves. We must try to put into them the sense of God's love to
+them, of their own duty, and so on; but rather by the tone of our
+questions about the lessons they learn than by discoursing long to them.
+You can only fill a little narrow-mouthed pitcher with a few drops at a
+time put right in. If you pour a great stream over it, most will splash
+over, and very little go in. I am afraid the children were tiresome last
+Sunday. It is their nature always to try their strength with a new
+teacher; but if you are firm and gentle, and show them that you _will_
+be minded, and keep them interested, they will soon be manageable. Then,
+Jessie, there is good hope that you may be sowing good seed, though you
+and I may not always see the fruit here, and it is nearly sure to be
+long before we can even trace the green blade."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE TROUSSEAU.
+
+
+MISS MANNERS'S words stayed with Jessie. She had plenty of sense and
+spirit, as well as a real wish to do right, and a yearning to spread the
+great Light round her. To be sure, the going to some mission in a
+dreadfully ignorant and wicked place would have seemed more like a good
+work than just taking a class who would be taught and cared for even
+without her help.
+
+But she could see that if she could not keep these tidy little trained
+children in order, she would not have much chance with the street Arabs
+she had read of.
+
+She got on much better the next Sunday. She kept the children interested
+almost all the time, all except the two lowest, who were determined to
+chatter till she made one stand on each side of her, and then one of
+them, Emma Lott, chose to howl till Miss Manners came to see what was
+the matter; but she did not get much by that, for she was only told that
+she was very naughty not to mind Miss Hollis, and desired to stop crying
+directly, which she did; and then Miss Manners asked Miss Hollis to be
+so kind as not to take away her ticket, if she would try to behave well
+for the rest of the day.
+
+Once more Lily Bell was so kind as to inform "teacher" that Susan said
+"she didn't care, not for she." To which Jessie coolly answered that she
+hoped Susan would soon learn to care for being a good girl, taking care
+not to look the least mortified, so that the information fell very
+flat. After that she had no more trouble with sauciness from the
+children; she began to find that Susan was clever and bright, and that
+Kate May and Lucy Elwood were very nice little maidens, who seemed to
+care to be good. They brought her flowers, told her funny little bits of
+news about baby beginning to walk, and mother going to Ellerby, and she
+found the time spent at school a very pleasant part of her Sunday; while
+as to the hours of preparation with Miss Manners, she enjoyed them so
+much that it was quite a blank if that lady had any engagement to
+prevent her from receiving her little party of teachers.
+
+Jessie found herself learning much more than she taught. Her quick
+nature could not but look into everything thoroughly, and when she had
+been once shown how to throw all her mind as well as her soul into the
+study of the Bible and Prayer-book, she found ever new delight in them.
+She began to find it helped her to pray with her understanding, as well
+as with her spirit at Church; to care more for her prayers at home, and
+to feel more on the times of the Holy Communion. She made her last
+year's hat serve again with a fresh tulle trimming, that she might buy
+herself a "Teacher's Bible," and not worry her mother and Grace any more
+by disturbing the big one, since they thought it honouring such a Bible
+to let it alone.
+
+Mrs. Hollis did read the Psalms and one Lesson every day. She said she
+had once promised Amy Lee, aunt to the present Amy, and she had hardly
+ever missed doing so.
+
+But Grace had not time. Just after Whitsuntide the daughter of a very
+rich farmer in the neighbourhood was engaged to be married, and wanted a
+quantity of fine work to be done for her, making underlinen and
+embroidering marks to handkerchiefs.
+
+She came with her mother to offer the work to Miss Lee, giving six weeks
+for it, but it was more than Aunt Rose thought right to undertake in the
+time. She said she could not get it done without disappointing several
+persons, and that she was very sorry, but that she could only undertake
+two sets of the things in the time.
+
+Mrs. Robson, the mother, was vexed and half angry. She said she hated
+common shop-work, and ready-made things, and she had taken a fancy to
+what she had seen of Miss Lee's work. She even offered to increase the
+payment, but Rose Lee stood firm. She said there was no one at hand whom
+she could hire and entrust with such work, and that she could not feel
+it right to undertake it, as it would only lead to breaking her
+engagements.
+
+"O, very well; I see you don't care to oblige me," said the lady,
+twirling off with her very tight skirts, and whisking up a train like a
+fish's tail. "No, I will not break the set. I am not accustomed to
+refusals."
+
+And off the two ladies drove, and Jessie told the story at home with a
+great deal of spirit.
+
+"Now that's just like Rose Lee," said Grace. "She won't make a bit of
+exertion for her own good!"
+
+"Well," said Jessie, "you know we should have to work awfully hard if
+she took it in hand."
+
+"I suppose she would have paid you for extra hours," said Grace sharply.
+
+"Miss Rose said it was the way to ruin a girl's health to set her to do
+such a lot of work," said Jessie.
+
+"And quite right too," put in her mother. "I knew a girl who was
+apprenticed to a dressmaker, and sat up five nights when they had two
+black jobs one after the other, and that girl's eyes never was the same
+again!"
+
+"Besides," added Jessie, "there's so much in hand."
+
+"Well, it might not do to offend Mrs. or Miss Manners, but--"
+
+"O, it is not that! The children's things were sent home yesterday. I
+wish you could have seen them, they were loves; and Miss Manners has got
+a new dress from London. She let Miss Lee see it, and take the pattern
+of the trimming. No, but Mrs. Drew has sent her Swiss cambric to be made
+up for Miss Alice, and Miss Pemberton has a new carmelite to be
+finished, and there are some dresses for the maids at the hall, all
+promised by Midsummer day."
+
+"Pooh! Customers like that can wait."
+
+"I don't see that it is a bit more right to disappoint them than any one
+else," said Jessie sturdily.
+
+"Old Miss Pemberton, to be compared with a lady like that!" exclaimed
+Grace.
+
+"It doesn't make much odds as to right or wrong," said Jessie, "but I
+don't think Mrs. Robson is much of a lady, to judge by the way she gave
+her orders and flounced off in a huff."
+
+"A lady," said Mrs. Hollis, contemptuously, "I should think not. Why,
+her father kept the 'White Feathers' at Ellerby; and Robson, he rose up
+just by speculations, as they call them; but I've seen him a little
+greengrocer's errand-boy, with a face like a dirty potato."
+
+"They can pay, any way," said Grace. "Folks say Robson could buy out our
+squire, ay, and my lord himself, if he chose."
+
+"And I'm sure," said Jessie, "she and her daughter had clothes on that
+must cost forty or fifty pounds apiece. Such a fur cloak, lined with
+ermine; and the young lady's jacket was sealskin, trimmed ever so deep
+with sable, and a hummingbird in her hat. They say little Miss Hilda saw
+her and cried for pity of the poor dear little bird."
+
+"Well, I'll tell you what," said Grace, "I'll set off this minute to
+Newcome Park, and see if I can't get the work, or at least some of it.
+You and I can do plain work as well any day as Rose Lee, Jessie."
+
+"Yes," said Jessie, "but I have my time at Miss Lee's all the same."
+
+"Of course, child; but there are the evenings, and I can sit to it while
+mother minds the shop."
+
+"Don't undertake more than you can manage, Grace," said Mrs. Hollis.
+
+"Trust me for that, mother. You can wash up, Jessie; I can get there
+before they go to dress for dinner. It is a capital thing! It will just
+make up for that bad debt of Long's, and help us to get in a real
+genteel stock of summer goods."
+
+Grace managed the house, and her mother, who durst not say a word when
+she was set on a thing; and as to Jessie, her sister always treated her
+as a rather naughty, idle child.
+
+The girl had struggled hotly against this, but it had always ended in
+getting into such a temper, and saying such fierce and violent things,
+that she had been much grieved and ashamed of herself, and now felt it
+better to let Grace have her way than to get into a dispute which was
+sure to make her do wrong.
+
+But when Grace, as neat as a new pin, had tripped out of the house, Mrs.
+Hollis and Jessie looked at one another, as if they had a pretty severe
+task set them.
+
+"Well, I think we could have managed without," said Mrs. Hollis, "but to
+be sure it is as well to be on the safe side; though I'd rather be
+without the money than be at all the trouble and hurry this work will
+be!"
+
+"I am sure I had," said Jessie. "I wish I had said nothing about it.
+Grace can't bear to hear of anything going that she has not got."
+
+"Any way," said Mrs. Hollis, "you shall not be put upon, Jessie, after
+all your work at Miss Lee's. You shall not be made to sit at your needle
+all the evening. It is not good for your health, and so I shall tell
+Grace."
+
+Jessie thanked her mother, but had little hope that she would be able to
+hold out against one so determined as her sister. Neither mother nor
+daughter would have broken her heart if Grace's application had come too
+late, but no such thing! It had been dark about an hour when she was
+driven up to the door in a dog-cart, out of which huge rolls of linen
+were lifted, enough, as it seemed, to stock the shop. Grace shook hands
+with the smart groom who had driven her, thanked him, and came in in
+high spirits.
+
+Mrs. Robson had been most gracious! She said she had feared being
+obliged to put up with mere warehouse work, and that she could not bear;
+but country people were so lazy and disobliging. It was not what she was
+used to.
+
+Grace had been taken up into the young lady's own room, and oh! what she
+had to tell about tall cheval glasses, and ivory-backed brushes, and
+rose-coloured curtains, and marble-topped washhand-stands, and a bed and
+wardrobe of inlaid wood, with beautiful birds and flowers, and
+gold-topped bottles and boxes, and downy chairs! The description was
+enough to last a week, and indeed it did, for fresh details came out
+continually. It almost made Jessie jealous for Miss Manners. Once when
+she had been caught in a sudden shower and arrived wet through she had
+been taken up to Miss Manners's bed-room to take off her boots and put
+on slippers.
+
+And there was only a plain little iron bed, uncurtained, and the floor
+was bare except for rugs at the hearth and bed-side, and the furniture
+was nothing but white dimity. The chimney ornaments and the
+washhand-stand looked like those in a nursery--as indeed they well
+might, for they had belonged to Miss Dora nearly all her life; they all
+had stories belonging to them, were keepsakes from dear friends, and she
+would not have given one, no, not the shell cat with an ear off, nor the
+little picture made of coloured sand, for Miss Robson's finest gilded
+box, unless indeed that had come in the same way.
+
+And there were two prints on the walls, very grave and beautiful, which
+made one feel like being in Church, and so did the illuminated texts,
+though all were not equally well done, some being painted by her little
+nieces. Jessie had a feeling in her mind that there was something finer
+and nobler in not making one's own nest so very splendid and luxurious,
+but she knew Grace would laugh at the notion, so she said nothing of
+the difference, while her mother said, "Dear, dear!" and "Think of
+that!" at each new bit of magnificence she heard of.
+
+Grace had her patterns and materials, and the fineness of them, and
+beauty of the lace provided for the trimming, were quite delightful to
+look at.
+
+The payment was to be very handsome, and Grace felt secure of carrying
+through the work in time, with the help of her mother and sister.
+
+"You shall have your share, Jessie," she said. "See, here are some sweet
+French cambric handkerchiefs to be marked in embroidery. 'I have a
+sister who can embroider beautifully,' says I, and they just jumped at
+it. 'Nina' is the name to be worked in the corners."
+
+"Oh, I like embroidery," cried Jessie. "Thank you, Grace."
+
+"There's six dozen," said Grace, "and you'll be able to do one a day.
+Four pence a letter. Why it will be quite a little fortune to you," said
+Grace, overpowered with her own generosity; and Jessie on her side
+thought of the many things 4_l._ 16_s._ would do for her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+STITCH, STITCH, STITCH.
+
+
+IT must be confessed that Mrs. Hollis and Jessie had a hard time of it
+while those wedding clothes were being made!
+
+There was no time for anything, certainly not for cooking. They ate the
+cold Sunday joint as long as it lasted, and lived the rest of the week
+on bread and cheese, and Australian meat now and then.
+
+Grace got up before four every morning, and there was not much peace in
+bed for any one after that.
+
+Of course the shop had to be minded, and that Mrs. Hollis did, but she
+was expected to be at her needle at every spare moment; and for the
+needful cleaning and rougher work, Grace got a woman for a couple of
+hours who came cheap, because she did not bear a very good character.
+Mrs. Hollis did not much like having her about, but, as Grace said, one
+or other of them always had an eye upon her, and she was only there for
+a couple of hours in the morning.
+
+It was lucky kettles could boil themselves, or there might not even have
+been tea, and as to going to Mrs. Somers's working parties, Grace
+declared it to be impossible.
+
+"I've got something else to do," she said, decidedly. "The lady can't
+expect me to stand in my own light."
+
+And when she saw Jessie on Friday evening put away her work and fetch
+her hat and books, she cried out against such idling, and said it must
+be given up.
+
+"No," said Jessie. "I can't give up my Church and my preparation with
+Miss Manners."
+
+"Nonsense! You see I've given up my working party."
+
+"Yes; but I can't give up mine," said Jessie. "Oh, Grace, we thought so
+much about trying to do what we could."
+
+"And so I am!" said Grace. "No one can say I am not doing my duty to my
+family, and that's better than throwing away my time on a lot of
+beggarly folk that don't deserve nothing. And you ought to know better,
+Jessie."
+
+"I must have my lesson prepared," said she in return.
+
+"As if you couldn't teach that there Bell girl without going to read
+with Miss Manners first! You'll never have those handkerchiefs done!"
+
+"I did two letters extra this morning," said Jessie.
+
+"Ah, that's very fine, but if you get one of your headaches----"
+
+The sound of that word alarmed Mrs. Hollis. Jessie had had a bad illness
+about a year ago, and the mother could not part with her anxiety about
+her. In she came, with the tea-cup she was washing in her hand.
+
+"Has Jessie got a headache?" she inquired.
+
+"Oh no, mother, thank you. Grace is only putting a case."
+
+"Yes; I am asking her what she thinks will become of the work if she is
+to go and take her pleasure whenever she likes. She talks of working
+extra; but supposing she had a headache, she'd be sorry she had thrown
+away her time."
+
+"Dear, dear," said Mrs. Hollis; "'tis the very way to make her have a
+headache to keep her poor nose to the grindstone. The doctor, he says to
+me, 'She've had a shock, and she'll require care, and not to be
+overstrained.' And I tell you, Grace, I won't have Jessie put upon, and
+kept muzzing over her needle like a blackamoor slave, without a taste of
+fresh air. So run away, Jessie, and get your walk."
+
+"Thank you, mother."
+
+And Jessie, who did not feel bound to obey her sister, ran lightly off,
+hoping poor mother would not be very fiercely talked at by Grace. She
+herself was clear that work undertaken for God's sake should not be
+dropped when one's own gain began to clash with it; while Grace, who had
+always been held up as the model, helpful good daughter, plainly
+thought, "working for one's family," and securing something extra, was
+such a reason as to make it a sort of duty to throw over all she had
+taken up under the spur of that sermon in the spring. Jessie had no
+headache, but she was weary, vexed, and teased, and
+
+          "Stitch, stitch, stitch,
+           Seam and gusset and band,"
+
+rang in her ears, so that she specially felt rested and soothed by the
+calm and quiet of Miss Manners's pretty room, with the open windows and
+the scent of flowers coming in from the garden.
+
+The subject was next Sunday's Gospel, about the Great Supper and the
+excuse-making guests. Miss Manners read out part of Archbishop Trench's
+comment on the Parable before she talked to the teachers about what they
+were to say to their classes; and Jessie felt deeply that to let herself
+be engrossed by this undertaking, so as to allow no time for her
+religious duties, would be only too like the guests who went "one to his
+farm, and another to his merchandise." She was advised to make it a
+lesson to her class against false or insufficient excuses, such as
+saying they were late at school because mother wanted them to take a
+message, when they had dawdled all the way instead of hastening to
+school. Miss Manners lent the volume of Miss Edgeworth's _Rosamond_ to
+Jessie, to read the chapter on Excuses to her girls, so as to bring home
+the lesson, though she was to carry it higher, and put them in mind that
+if they put their duties aside for these little things now, they would
+be learning to forget their Heavenly Master for earthly matters, and
+would never taste of His supper.
+
+It made Jessie doubly and trebly determined that she would not take a
+lie-a-bed on Sunday morning to make up for loss of rest before, and thus
+miss the early Celebration on her monthly Sunday. Indeed, she felt drawn
+to come oftener, if it would not be presuming.
+
+She came home from Church in the summer twilight, when even Grace could
+not work, and was standing a moment at the door before lighting the
+lamp.
+
+"Well, miss, I hope you have wasted enough daylight," she said.
+
+"I hope it wasn't quite wasted," said Jessie, cheerfully. "I shall work
+ever so much quicker for the rest I have had."
+
+And she was as good as her word, and spent an hour in her pleasant
+embroidery of the pretty white letters of the name which she really
+delighted in doing, only she would have liked a fresh pattern instead of
+making all the seventy-two Ninas exactly alike.
+
+She was at work before half-past six the next day, and had three more
+letters done before it was time to go to Miss Lee's, where it was a busy
+day of finishing work; and when at three o'clock the last stitch was put
+to the dress that had been made out of Mrs. Drew's cambric, Miss Lee
+asked Jessie to carry it home, suspecting that the walk would be good
+for her.
+
+It was rather hot, but Jessie did enjoy the lanes, with their flowery
+banks, and the sweet smells of the hay, and she felt much brightened
+and refreshed. When she came near the house, she saw some one sitting in
+a basket-chair in the porch, and knew that it was Miss Needwood, a poor,
+sickly orphan relation of Mrs. Drew's, who was always trying situations
+as nursery governess, or reader, or the like, and leaving them because
+her health would not serve; and then she had no home to go to but
+Chalk-pit Farm. She was not so much above the Hollises as the farmer's
+own family, and was always friendly with them. She came to meet Jessie,
+shook hands with her, and explained that Mrs. Drew had been summoned to
+speak about some poultry, but would return in a moment if Miss Hollis
+would sit down.
+
+"Are you stopping here for long?" asked Jessie.
+
+"I don't know," said the poor girl, sadly; "I hoped I was settled in a
+nice situation; but my asthma was bad there, and the lady found it out,
+and it made her nervous, so here I am again. Mr. Drew, he is kind, and
+says I may make myself useful with teaching the children; but oh, dear!
+I don't know enough for that."
+
+"I thought you had gone out for a nursery governess."
+
+"Yes"--the tears came in her eyes;--"but I'll never try again. The elder
+young ladies made game of my French, and said I didn't spell as well as
+the little nursery girl. And it was true, Miss Hollis. I tried being a
+sewing-maid last, though Mrs. Drew didn't want folk to know it; but, you
+see, I hadn't health for that. They are very good here, and will keep
+me; but I am nothing but a burthen. If I could but hear of something to
+do--if only to keep me in clothes. I can do fancy-work, if I could get
+any."
+
+"Can you embroider?" asked Jessie.
+
+Miss Needwood took out her pocket-handkerchief, where her initials, H.
+N., were beautifully worked. Jessie had admired her own work, but this
+was much better. It was just such an N as she wanted, and she
+exclaimed--
+
+"If you would be so kind as to lend me one of those for a pattern, I
+should be so much obliged."
+
+"Do you embroider?" asked Miss Needwood. "I wish you could tell me if
+there is any shop at Ellerby or Carchester that would employ me; I
+should be so much happier."
+
+Here Mrs. Drew came back, and looked over the dress which was to be sent
+to her daughter at her boarding-school, and thanked Jessie, and gave her
+the money for Miss Lee.
+
+Miss Needwood had fetched the handkerchief, and Jessie took leave and
+walked home, thinking over what shops might possibly employ the poor
+girl. What a pity she had not those handkerchiefs to do, and why should
+she not do some of them?
+
+Oh, Grace would never consent. Besides, Jessie had spent her 4_l._
+16_s._ in fancy already on the Offertory, savings bank, a present for
+mother, a pair of spectacles for old Dame Wall, a pretty new dress and
+hat for herself. Oh no, she must work on; it was such pretty work, and
+Grace would scorn her so if she gave up any part of it.
+
+Jessie came home to find Mrs. Hollis in all the hard work and worry of a
+Saturday evening, alone in the shop, with people waiting and getting
+cross. She had to hasten behind the counter and help as fast as she
+could. It was well that the Lees had given her a cup of tea when she
+brought in the money, for there was no quiet for more than an hour, and
+then the fire was found to have gone out while Grace was putting in
+gathers. Moreover, Jessie saw, with dismay, that the beefsteak-pie,
+which was to serve for the morrow, was not even made.
+
+"Oh, I'll do that to-morrow morning," said Grace.
+
+And when Jessie proceeded to tack in her clean collar and cuffs, Grace
+called out, raising her hot face from her work, that they might be
+pinned in on Sunday morning; it was only waste of time to do so now.
+
+"I don't think that is using Sunday quite well," said Jessie.
+
+"Well, I never heard there was any harm in sticking in a pin of a
+Sunday! Come, sit down, do, and don't keep fiddling about. You'll be
+behind with those handkerchiefs. Here, mother, you can finish this seam
+before dark."
+
+"The place is in such a caddle," said poor Mrs. Hollis, looking ruefully
+round at her kitchen, which certainly did not wear at all its usual
+Saturday evening's aspect. "That Jenny Simkins, she do so stabble in
+and out, she only wants some one to clean after her."
+
+"Oh, well, I'll see to that," said Grace, "when it gets too dark for
+work. One must put up with a little for such a chance as this."
+
+Jessie felt that her poor mother was putting up with more than a little,
+as she saw her sit down with a sigh and try to thread her needle by the
+window. Jessie went across and did it for her, and put back the muslin
+blind so as to let in more light; then sat down to finish the "na" of
+her sixth Nina, rather wearily, and with an uncomfortable thought that
+Miss Needwood's satin-stitch looked better than her own.
+
+Little "n" was done before the twilight tidying, which did not amount to
+much, for Grace soon lighted the lamp; but Jessie, in putting up the
+shop shutters, made the arm, which had once been crushed, tremble so
+much that she could not work without pricking her finger, and Mrs.
+Hollis really could not see. So Grace let them both go to bed, and
+Jessie half waked to hear her bustling about, and coming up herself just
+after the clock struck twelve. She would not have set a stitch on any
+account after that!
+
+Jessie was up early enough to light the fire, and set out the breakfast
+things, and put on the kettle, while both her mother and Grace were
+still in bed. She had a peaceful, happy time then, but otherwise she had
+never known such an uncomfortable Sunday.
+
+Mrs. Hollis was down when she came back, but was fretting over the very
+large bit that had gone out of the cheese. Jessie thought they had eaten
+it for want of meat; her mother suspected Jenny Simkins. Then she had
+not been allowed time to copy out her accounts into the book, and there
+had been a great puzzle between a three and a five on the slate last
+night, which seemed to have been worrying her all night in her dreams;
+and the uncleaned look of the house vexed her. She was tired and not
+like herself, and Jessie only left her for school and church on hearing
+Grace's step on the stairs.
+
+At school she could forget all about it in the interest of teaching, but
+the worry returned when her mother's place was empty at the beginning of
+the service; and when Mrs. Hollis did come posting in at the end of the
+_Venite_, she was so hot and panting that she had to sit down and fan
+herself with her pocket-handkerchief all through the Psalms, and Jessie
+even feared she might be going to faint.
+
+"Oh dear," Mrs. Hollis mourned, when they came out of church, "she had
+never been so upset before, but she had been so put about to get off,
+with none of her things ready, and she was _that_ tired and sleepy she
+had not heard a word of the sermon. Grace really had undertaken too
+much. The house was in such a mess there was no sitting down quiet and
+respectable, and there was threepence in the till that would not be
+accounted for, and she was sure that the cheese was going too fast." She
+fretted all the way home, and Jessie could not comfort her, by promising
+to look over the accounts the first thing on Monday.
+
+However, on coming home they found the whole house tidied, dinner laid,
+the pie made and just ready to come out of the Dutch oven, and the
+accounts balanced and written out fairly. Grace was just finishing the
+arraying herself in full Sunday trim outside, but how was it with the
+inner Sunday raiment of her heart?
+
+She did nothing but talk about "seam and gusset and band," and how fast
+she was getting on, and how good the linen was, and what sort was the
+best, till Jessie thought she might almost as well have been sewing all
+day as with her thoughts running on nothing else.
+
+When Jessie went to afternoon school, both Mrs. Hollis and Grace were so
+tired that the one went to sleep in her chair, and the other on her bed;
+and thus Jessie found them on her return.
+
+Poor mother! how weary and worn her face looked after this week of
+worry. The sight of it settled Jessie's mind. She went up softly to take
+off her things, and as she was doing so, Grace awoke. Jessie went up to
+her and showed her Miss Needwood's cipher.
+
+"Bless me! whose is that? It is real genteel," said Grace.
+
+"It is Miss Needwood's at Chalk-pit Farm."
+
+"What! that poor helpless thing that never can keep a situation! Did you
+get it for a pattern, Jessie?"
+
+"Yes," said Jessie; "she lent it to me."
+
+"It is beautiful," said Grace, examining it minutely. "You ought to work
+like that, Jessie."
+
+"I would if I could," said Jessie, "and I mean to try; but, Grace, I
+shall only finish this first dozen. I shall send the other five dozen to
+Bessie Needwood. She is in great want of work, and will do them much
+better than I."
+
+"Well I never!" cried Grace. "I never thought you'd turn lazy, and give
+up what you had undertaken--when I had asked for the handkerchiefs on
+purpose for you, because I thought a little pocket money would come in
+convenient!"
+
+"So it would. It was very kind of you, Grace; but Miss Needwood will do
+them better than I."
+
+"Not than you if you chose to take the pains and trouble."
+
+"No," said Jessie, "if I don't hurry them too quick to try to do those
+finest stitches, I sha'n't have time to do them at all, in these after
+hours of mine."
+
+"Well, that you should choose to confess yourself not able to do as well
+as a poor dozing thing like that! It's all laziness."
+
+"No, that it is not," said Jessie, rather hotly. "I thought if those
+were off my hands I could help you, and then mother need not have any of
+this work to do, or be so driven and put about."
+
+"You don't expect to be paid for any part of mother's work," said Grace,
+with some sharpness. "I've got my own use for that in the business."
+
+"No, I don't!" and Jessie went suddenly off in a little bit of temper
+for which she was sorry afterwards, wishing she had said that her real
+reason--besides the helping Miss Needwood--was the hope to save her
+mother from being over driven, and not to have another Sunday so
+cumbered with worldly matters.
+
+Grace came down to tea grumbling, and appealing to her mother about
+Jessie's laziness; and Mrs. Hollis, for whose sake the girl had resigned
+five-sixths of her hoped-for gain, was inclined to be vexed at any of
+the work going out of the family, or her Jessie allowing herself to be
+beaten.
+
+It was very vexatious, and Jessie was glad when Uncle Andrew dropped in
+to tea, and to change the current of their thoughts.
+
+She was to stay at home to guard the house while the others went to
+evensong, and this gave her the quiet opportunity of packing up five
+dozen handkerchiefs, and writing a note to send with them to Bessie
+Needwood the first thing in the morning, by any child who came early to
+the shop.
+
+Then she felt much more at ease, and was able to have a comfortable
+study of her next Sunday's Gospel and its references, in case she should
+be too busy on the week days; and so she was peaceful and refreshed, and
+able to enjoy a quiet little wander in the twilight garden with her
+hymn-book. This lasted till the others came home, brim full of reports
+they had picked up about the splendour of the coming wedding. The
+gentleman, Mr. Holdaway, was staying at Newcorn Park, and, what was
+more, he had sent his horses and grooms down to the Manners Arms,
+because the stables at the Chequers were not well kept.
+
+The head groom had actually been at Church, and looked quite the
+gentleman, though to be sure he did stare about wonderfully.
+
+Mrs. Hollis shook her head, and said no good came of that sort of folk.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+WANDERING EYES.
+
+
+"I ASSURE you he said he had never seen a place with more pretty young
+ladies in it."
+
+"Who?" said Jessie, coming suddenly into the light closet of the
+work-room, where Florence Cray was taking off her hat, and Amy Lee
+seemed to be helping her.
+
+"Why, Mr. Wingfield, Mr. Holdaway's head groom, who has come over with
+another man and a boy, and three of the loveliest horses you ever did
+see."
+
+"Oh, yes, I heard," said Jessie; "and how he stared about at Church! He
+ought to be ashamed of himself."
+
+"Oh! that's what Grace says, of course," said Florence; "and she's a
+regular old maid. She needn't fear that he'll stare at her."
+
+Wherewith both Florence and Amy giggled, and before Jessie's hot answer
+was out of her mouth, one of the aunts called out--
+
+"Girls, girls, what are you doing? No gossiping there."
+
+Florence came out looking cross, and observing in a marked manner that
+Miss Fuller, at Ellerby, always spoke of her young ladies.
+
+"I like using right names," said Aunt Rose in her decided voice.
+
+Florence was silenced for the time, but at the dinner hour she contrived
+to get Amy alone. Jessie was in haste to get home to see if there were
+an answer from Miss Needwood, and also to try to get enough sewing done
+to pacify Grace, and purchase a little leisure for her mother. And
+Florence, instead of going home, stood with Amy, who had sauntered into
+the garden to refresh herself and gather some parsley.
+
+"I assure you, Amy, he was quite struck. He said yours was such a style
+that he would hardly believe me when I said you belonged to Mr. Lee, the
+baker. It was the refinement, he said."
+
+"Nonsense, Florence; don't," said Amy, blushing as crimson as the rose
+she tried to gather.
+
+"I'm not talking nonsense; I never did see a poor man so smitten."
+
+"Now, Florence, you shouldn't say such things; father and aunts would
+not like it. I shall go in."
+
+"Fathers and aunts are all alike; they never do like such things.
+But----"
+
+However, Amy was safe indoors by this time, all in a glow, very much
+ashamed that such things should have been said to her, and yet not a
+little fluttered and pleased. She had been most carefully brought up
+and watched over, and she had come to the age of sixteen without hearing
+more about herself than that a young lady, who once came into the school
+with Miss Agnes Manners, said something that sounded like lovely, and
+was speedily hushed up and silenced.
+
+All the other girls thought the young lady meant Henrietta Coles, who
+was tall, with bright dark eyes, red cheeks, and black hair, under a
+round comb; but Amy had always been sure that the speaker's eyes were
+upon her, though she had been ashamed of the belief, and indeed had
+nearly forgotten all about it, till it was stirred up by Florence's
+talk.
+
+She went up to her room to smooth her hair before dinner. Yes, it was
+very nice light-brown hair, with a golden shine; and her eyes were very
+clear and blue, and her skin very white, with a rosy flush; and her
+nose was straight, and the shape was a pretty delicate one. Amy really
+did think Mr. Wingfield was right, and had better taste than the people
+who thought her a poor washy, peaky thing, as she had more than once
+heard herself called.
+
+She put her head on one side, smirked a little, half shut her eyes, and
+studied herself in different positions, till she heard one of her aunts
+on the stairs; and then, in a desperate fright lest she should be
+caught, she darted out so fast as to run against Aunt Charlotte coming
+up stairs with a basket of clean linen from the wash. There were three
+pairs of stockings rolled up on the top, and these tumbled out, and one
+pair went hop, hop, from step to step all the way down stairs, just as
+Father was coming in, and he caught it up and threw it like a ball
+straight up at his sister.
+
+The confusion drove the nonsense out of Amy's head for the present. She
+ate her dinner, and then went off as usual for her visit to little Edwin
+Smithers, carrying him only a few strawberries, as she knew he always
+had soup from the Hall on a Monday.
+
+For Edwin had not died. He had rather grown better than worse, and if
+the truth must be told, Amy had begun to get a little tired of him. He
+was not a quick child, and in this hot weather he often failed to do the
+sums or learn the verses that Amy set him.
+
+To-day he was nursing a great piece of stick-liquorice with which he had
+painted a dirty spot on the central face in the picture of the number of
+the _Chatterbox_ which she had lent him. She scolded him for it, and he
+turned sulky, and would not try to repeat his hymn, nor answer any
+questions, and looked at his book as if he had never seen one before.
+
+Amy grew angry, told him he was a naughty boy, and she should not stay
+with him nor give him any strawberries; and off she went, carrying away
+the injured _Chatterbox_, and never bethinking herself that the hot day
+and the weariness of the dull untidy room might not be the cause of the
+naughty fit, and whether it would not have been kinder and better to try
+to soothe him out of it.
+
+But instead of this she paused to hear Mrs. Rowe declare he was a bad
+'un, with a nasty sulky temper that no one could do nothing with, and
+just then she saw Florence Cray crossing the village green.
+
+"I've just been to get a little red pepper at Hollis's," she said, as
+she put her arm fondly into Amy's. "Mr. Wingfield do like something
+tasty for his breakfast, and ma is going to do him some devilled kidneys
+to-morrow morning. He is quite the gentleman in all his tastes, you
+see! I wanted Jessie to walk back with me, but they are all so terrible
+busy over that there wedding order, that she could not come till the
+last minute."
+
+"Working all through the dinner hour!" said Amy. "What a shame!"
+
+"So I say. But that Grace Hollis is a one! I wouldn't have her for my
+sister. Here, come in, Amy, I must just give mother the pepper."
+
+"No, I can't do that," said Amy, uneasily, for she knew her father would
+be displeased if she went into a public-house; though as Florence said,
+"Gracious! You needn't go near the bar. It's only the back door! As if I
+would ask you to do anything you ought not! But I suppose our house
+ain't good enough for you."
+
+"Oh! don't be angry, Florence dear, I'll come some day when I've got
+leave."
+
+"Leave indeed, at your age; but you're a poor-spirited thing, Amy, to
+be so kept down by a couple of old aunts."
+
+Amy was flurried at the displeasure, and wanted to make it up. "Oh!
+don't be offended, Florence. Look here."
+
+"Strawberries! oh my! already! Thank you," and Florence had soon
+swallowed up poor little Edwin's strawberries.
+
+"Wait here one moment then," she said, "and I'll be back with you in an
+instant."
+
+Amy stood under her parasol, trying to make the most of the small
+shelter afforded by Mr. Cray's garden hedge, and recollecting rather
+uncomfortably something she had once been told about the loitering of
+the disobedient Prophet being what brought him into temptation. But,
+having promised to wait, she could not move away, though she had to stay
+longer than she liked, especially as the children were going by to
+afternoon school, and some of her own class began to stare at her.
+
+However, at last Florence came out, quite excited. "Oh, Amy, if you'll
+only wait a minute, you'll see him come out."
+
+"I can't! I can't! Let us go," cried Amy, quite shocked and shy.
+
+"Nonsense! Poor man, he need never see you. He is just going to take the
+horses up for his master to ride out with Miss Robson. Such sweet
+horses! Mr. Holdaway gave 120 guineas for his. Think of that, Amy! Here
+now, come round the corner of the hedge, and he'll never see you."
+
+So Amy followed and peeped, very shy and frightened, like a guilty
+thing, and she did see two horses, much more beautiful than she knew,
+one ridden by a common-looking groom, the other by a very smart, well
+set-up person, with a belt round his waist. That was all she saw, for
+they were gone in a flash, and she was too uncomfortable to see much, or
+to do more than hurriedly answer Florence's exclamation--
+
+"Ain't he quite the gentleman? Bain't his horses real darlings?" before
+Jessie's voice was heard--
+
+"Why, whatever are you two doing here?"
+
+The two girls both giggled, and each pushed the other to make her tell,
+and Florence laughed out--
+
+"Oh, 'twas Amy wanted to see Mr. Wingfield pass by."
+
+"No, 'twasn't. 'Twas you," said Amy.
+
+"I don't see why you should get into a corner about it," said Jessie,
+rather gravely. "I've just met him straight upon the road, horses and
+all."
+
+"O yes, _you_!" said Florence.
+
+"Well, why not me?"
+
+"O, you know, you'll soon be an old maid like your sister."
+
+Jessie had not grown so wise as not to be nettled at this silly
+impertinent speech, but she was much more vexed to see that Florence was
+teaching Amy her own follies--Amy, who had always seemed like a pure
+little innocent wild rose-bud in its modest green leaves. So she
+answered, rather shortly--
+
+"If you mean that I don't want to be right down ridiculous, I hope I am
+an old maid."
+
+This seemed to be very funny, for Florence went off in fits of laughing,
+and kept shouldering Amy to make her see the joke, but Amy had by this
+time grown ashamed and frightened and only answered, "Don't."
+
+So the three girls went in together, and no one took any special notice
+of Amy's hot face and uncomfortable gestures. It was the first time
+since she had been a very little child that she had shrunk from her
+aunts' eyes, or feared that they should ask her questions; and the
+sense that she had been undeserving of the trust they placed in her made
+her very ill at ease, though the silly girl did not do the only thing
+that would have set her right again, and made her safer for the future.
+
+Jessie meanwhile had forgotten the little vexation. She had something to
+brighten her up in Miss Needwood's little note.
+
+It was written on pink paper, edged with blue, as if nothing could be
+too good for Jessie; and it said no words could tell how glad she was,
+and what a comfort it was to have this real work to do. "It is really
+like a ray of hope in the darkness," said poor Bessie, in her little
+thin weak writing, with a very hard steel pen.
+
+But that note warmed up Jessie's heart, although her finger was getting
+severely ploughed up with the stitching she had been doing to save her
+mother's eyes.
+
+"There was not to be an inch of machine work," Mrs. Robson had said, and
+the Hollises were people who fulfilled all they undertook.
+
+But Jessie's hour at home had helped and freshened her mother, who
+looked much less worn and worried than she had done the day before.
+Jessie felt she had done well to send away the handkerchiefs, and lessen
+the burthen Grace had taken upon the family.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+AMY'S VISITS.
+
+
+NOBODY could say any great harm of Florence Cray, or she would not have
+been bound to Miss Lee.
+
+But she was one of those silly, vulgar-minded girls who think life is
+nothing without continually chattering either to young men or about
+them. She was in no hurry to be married, for then she knew she must give
+up all her lively pastime with the lads around her. Not that she
+frequented the bar, or had anything to do with the customers--her mother
+kept her carefully from that; but she had plenty of acquaintance, and to
+her mind nothing else was so amusing. She was not pretty, and knew it
+well enough, but she was very good-natured, and free from jealousy, and
+next to diverting herself with some youth, she liked nothing so well as
+teasing other girls about them.
+
+She considered Amy Lee quite old enough and pretty enough to have a
+young man, and to begin to have some fun, and she thought all the care
+taken of the girl by her father and aunts only so much stupid old fidget
+and jealousy, which it was fun to baffle and elude. Thus she was a very
+dangerous companion for Amy, perhaps more so than a really worse person,
+who would have been more shocking and startling to Amy's sense of
+modesty and propriety. It was such a new sensation altogether to be
+always popping about and peeping to admire the handsome stranger and his
+fine horses, and then to whisk giggling out of the way, in terror lest
+they had been seen.
+
+It was more amusing than sitting by a fretful boy, trying to make him
+read and say hymns, and though conscience was half awake, it was easily
+satisfied. And then there was the pleasure of being told that she was
+admired--though Amy would not have liked it as well if she had guessed
+that Florence used to amuse herself on the other hand by telling Mr.
+Wingfield how a certain young lady admired him, and teasing him by
+declaring that, "Oh no! she could not tell him who, she should be
+nameless. Did he like best fair or dark?"
+
+So time went on, and the needlework with it. Grace Hollis's whole brain
+seemed to be turning into thread and cotton, for she was able to think
+of nothing else except what she should do with the money, when she got
+it; but she did not scold Jessie, as she had been inclined to do at
+first, for giving up the handkerchiefs, for she had begun to find that
+without her sister's help there would have been no chance of finishing,
+without overworking her mother, and neglecting the business of the shop.
+
+Indeed, as it was, when the last week came there was so much still to be
+done that she was obliged to ask Miss Needwood to come and help, which
+she was very glad to do, when she had finished the handkerchiefs most
+delicately and beautifully.
+
+Jessie gave all the time she could. She was glad to have something to
+think about, for Miss Manners was from home, so there were no readings
+before the Sundays; and her sharp eyes could not help seeing that there
+was something underhand going on between Amy and Florence--where she did
+not know whether to interfere or not.
+
+She had seen Amy and Florence come hastily round the corner of the lane,
+which had a stile into a large shady path field at the back of Mrs.
+Smithers's cottage, and Mr. Wingfield hovering about. It did not look
+well--and indeed what she would have thought nothing of in such a girl
+as Florence was a very different thing in Amy. Then stories that she
+disliked were afloat about the man. He was said to be teaching the young
+men at the Manners Arms new gambling games, and to be putting them up to
+bet on race-horses; and once she heard a very unpleasant laugh about
+very good, closely-kept girls being as ready to carry on as other folk.
+
+Once when she asked Amy after little Edwin Smithers, the answer was
+rather cross. "Oh! just as usual. He is the most tiresome fractious
+child I ever saw!"
+
+"Children are often like that when they are going to be worse," said
+Jessie.
+
+"Well," returned Amy, "I've always heard that children are most fretty
+and fussy when they are getting better."
+
+"Then I hope he is better."
+
+"O dear yes, of course he is, or he would not be here now," said Amy,
+impatiently, and getting very red.
+
+"How does he get on with his reading?"
+
+"There never was such a one for questions as you, Jessie!" cried Amy,
+getting quite cross.
+
+And as Jessie knew curiosity to be her failing, and was really trying to
+break herself of it, she was silenced.
+
+No doubt Amy was angered because her conscience was very far from being
+easy, though she never failed to pop into the Smithers's cottage every
+day, sometimes to bring the little dainties her aunts provided,
+sometimes to say a few words and begin a lesson with Edwin; but her
+heart was not in it, the boy would seldom attend, and often turned away
+his face and said "No," or began to cry; whereupon Amy told him he was
+very naughty, and marched off, excusing herself by the fact that the
+girl Polly was generally in the house, and seemed to be attending to him
+much better than she used to do.
+
+No wonder Amy was in a hurry, for Florence was waiting for her outside;
+and by and by not only Florence.
+
+It began one windy day when Amy's sunshade flew out of her hand. She ran
+after it, as it went dancing along on its spokes over the village green,
+jumping up just as she neared it, and whisking off just as if it had
+been alive, or like one of those gay butterflies and birds in allegories
+that lure the little pilgrims out of the narrow path. Alas! it was only
+too much like such a deluder.
+
+For some one came round the corner, caught the wild sunshade, and
+restored it to the owner. She was tittering and breathless, she blushed
+all over, and never raised her eyes while Mr. Wingfield hoped, in
+elegant language, that she had not fatigued herself, and paid a
+flattering compliment to the lovely colour with which exercise had
+suffused her complexion. This made her giggle and blush all the more.
+She did not know whether she liked it or not, poor silly child!
+
+She often "wished he would not;" she was in a dreadful fright whenever
+it happened, and yet the day seemed flat and tiresome and not worth
+having when he had not joined her and Florence, and walked down the path
+below Hornbeam Wood, behind Mrs. Smithers's cottage, with them.
+
+He never said or did anything to startle her. He saw she was a modest,
+well-behaved girl, and he knew how to treat such a one. He talked
+chiefly about the preparations for the wedding, or made the two simple
+country girls stare by wonderful stories of the horses he had ridden and
+driven, or by descriptions of the parks and the theatre. Now and then
+he was complimentary, but Florence told Amy much more of his admiration
+than she ever heard herself. As to letting her father or aunts know of
+the acquaintance, Amy was half afraid, half ashamed. One day she heard a
+talk between her father and Mr. Nowell, the gardener at the Hall, who
+was vexed about an under gardener.
+
+"I shall have to speak to the Squire about him, I am afraid," said Mr.
+Nowell; "he don't do his work with half a heart, and instead of spending
+his evenings at the club, or at cricket--wholesome and hearty like--he
+is always down at Cray's."
+
+"I hear," said Mr. Lee, "the club was never so badly attended."
+
+"They say it is all along of that there smart groom, Wingfield, as they
+call him, who is all for gambling games, and putting up our young lads
+to betting tricks and the like."
+
+"Ay, ay," said Mr. Lee, "one of them idle, good-for-nothing servants
+loafing about at a public will do more harm in a place than you can undo
+in a day."
+
+"That's true," added Aunt Rose; "I can't bear the sight of the fellow
+lounging about with his little stick, as if he was saying to all the
+place, 'Here I am; it's just improvement to you all to see how I switch
+my legs.'"
+
+"And he stares so!" added Aunt Charlotte. "Last time Amy and I met him
+on the road, I really thought he would have stared the poor child out of
+countenance. I had a great mind to have spoken to him, and told him to
+mind his manners."
+
+"You are too young and too good-looking to do that sort of thing,
+Charlotte," said her brother, laughing. "May be 'twas your aunt he
+looked at, so you needn't go as red as a turkey-cock, Amy girl."
+
+"Me, indeed!" said Charlotte, in hot indignation. "I should hope I was
+_past_ being stared at by a whipper-snapper monkey like that."
+
+The elders all laughed heartily, and Mr. Nowell said something about
+Miss Charlotte being a fine woman of her time of life, which made her
+still more angry, and set her brother and sister laughing the more.
+
+Amy squeezed out a weak little giggle, but she was both angered and
+frightened. She could never tell her aunts now. What would they say? The
+time of the wedding was drawing on; Mr. Wingfield would be going. Little
+flutters moved her breast. Would he say any more before he went, or did
+she wish it? Florence said he was dying for her. Florence thought he was
+a gentleman in disguise, like one she had read about in a novel; but
+Amy, though she liked to dream of something sweet and grand years
+hence, did not want to be startled by love-making now, or to have the
+dreadful disturbance at home there would be if this were more than a
+summer acquaintance. How would the aunts look, when they found she had
+concealed all this--she who had never hidden anything from them before?
+
+And yet she took the stolen pleasure in trembling every day, and tried
+to believe Florence when she said there was no harm in it, that every
+one did so, and that young people must be young!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+AWKWARD MEETINGS.
+
+
+"WELL, to be sure, who would have thought of such a treat! This is a
+pleasure indeed! Rose, Rose, whom do you think we have here?"
+
+"How natural it all do look to be sure. There, Ambrose, there's the very
+rose tree I have so often told you of."
+
+"Why, mother has described it all so well, I could have found my way
+blindfold."
+
+The speaker was a tall, fair-faced young man, looking, in Charlotte
+Lee's eyes, like one of the young gentlemen from the university, but
+with something grave and deep about his face, and by him stood his
+little mother in the neatest of black silk dresses, with something
+sweet and childlike about her face still, though there were some
+middle-aged lines in it. She had once been the Amy Lee of Langley. She
+had married a schoolmaster, Mr. Cuthbert, and this was their only son.
+He had distinguished himself in all his examinations, and at the same
+time had shown so deep an interest in missions to the heathen, and had
+done so much to make the boys of the school care for them, that when
+there was a question of choosing a lad as a missionary student, whose
+expenses would be paid by subscriptions of the clergy in the diocese, at
+the great college of St. Augustine's at Canterbury, the vicar of his
+parish had three years ago proposed Ambrose Cuthbert as the fittest
+youth he knew. He had just finished his terms at the college, and was on
+his way home before going out to Rupertsland, having met his mother at
+the house of his father's brother in London. They had found out that an
+excursion train would enable them to run down to Langley and spend a few
+hours there; and Mrs. Cuthbert, who had always said her son must not
+leave England without having seen her old home, her brother and sisters,
+was delighted with the opportunity, and here they were, the brother and
+the three sisters all together, hardly knowing what they said in their
+eager joy.
+
+"And my little Amy, where is she? You have not seen your namesake, Amy,"
+said the father, who had come in bare armed and floury.
+
+"She is not come back yet from poor little Teddy's," said Aunt Rose.
+"The child goes to teach, and see to, a poor little sick lad in a
+cottage every day, Amy. We like her to do such things," she added,
+pleased that her sister should see that their child was likewise
+something superior in goodness. "Ah! is it you, Jessie? This is Clemmy
+Fielding's daughter, Amy. Did you see our Amy as you came along,
+Jessie?"
+
+"I will run back and call her," said Jessie, who had seen the top of
+Amy's sunshade over the hedge, and in good-natured sympathy wanted to
+spare all the shock of discovery.
+
+"No, no," said Miss Rose, "thank you all the same, Jessie, but if you
+would not mind sitting down to the machine, I would walk out that way
+with my sister, just while my brother is finishing his batch of bread,
+and you are getting ready a bit of something to eat, Charlotte. I know,
+Amy, you would like just to look round the hill, and see where the
+squire's new cottages lie. Wouldn't you?"
+
+Jessie saw there was no help for it. Mrs. Cuthbert was delighted to go
+and to show her son her old haunts; but first she spoke very kindly to
+Jessie, and inquired for her mother, saying she remembered her well; and
+on her side Jessie recollected that her mother always said she owed
+more to Mrs. Cuthbert's kindness when she was a little girl than to any
+one else.
+
+So off set the two elder sisters and the pleasant looking young man
+together. Amy always was late, and Jessie felt one hope, that they might
+meet the two girls coming in together. Yet, as she whirred her machine,
+she reflected that after all it might be best for Amy in the end that
+all this folly and concealment should be put a stop to.
+
+Out they went, talking; Mrs. Cuthbert asking questions, and pointing
+everything out to her son, and Aunt Rose delighted to answer.
+
+"We do not hurry the maid," said Aunt Rose, as they drew near. "You see
+it is such a blessing to that poor little afflicted child to have her
+with him."
+
+Perhaps Rose Lee, who had had her dreams and fancies like other people,
+was thinking of the tales where some one looks in at the window and
+sees the good young person bending over the sufferer's couch, and
+reading good books to him; but it was certainly not Amy whom she saw as
+the door stood open. There was the little boy on the old couch under the
+window, moaning a little, but it was his sister who was standing by him
+with a cup of something, coaxing him with "Now Teddy, do be a good boy,
+and drink it, do'ee now."
+
+"Why, Polly," said Aunt Rose, "are you here?"
+
+"Please, Miss Lee," said Polly, in a high squeaky voice of self-defence,
+"Our Ted is so bad, I couldn't go to school, not this afternoon."
+
+"And where's Miss Amy? Not gone for the doctor?" asked Rose, seeing
+indeed that the poor child looked very ill.
+
+"No, miss," said Polly. "Teacher Amy don't come now for more than a
+minute."
+
+"Where is she then?" asked Rose, to whom the world seemed whirling
+round; while Ambrose Cuthbert stood at the door, and his mother was
+feeling the poor child's hands, and looking with dismay at the grease
+gathering on the half cold broth with which his sister had been trying
+to feed him.
+
+But Polly's answer was quite ready--"Down the mead along with that there
+Wingfield and Cray's gal."
+
+"Who?" asked Rose, severely, for the girl's tone had that sort of pert
+simplicity, or simple pertness, that children can put on when they know
+they are giving unpleasant information, but will not seem to understand
+it.
+
+"With Mr. Wingfield, the gentleman's groom up at the Arms," said she.
+"He be her young man."
+
+Ambrose Cuthbert turned his head outwards to hide a smile. Rose said
+hotly, "Hold your tongue, child! don't be saucy! Come, Amy, here is
+some mistake."
+
+"Stay, Rose," said Mrs. Cuthbert, "the child is really very ill. Has he
+a mother? Something ought to be done."
+
+Rose did not feel as if she could care for the boy at such a moment, and
+just then old Mrs. Rowe, brought by the sound of voices, came in by the
+back door.
+
+"Ay! Rose Lee," she said. "If you wants to know where your fine niece
+is, just look here. I never knew no good come of bringing up young folks
+to be better than their neighbours, going about a visiting as if they
+was ladies."
+
+Rose had reached the back garden, and over the broken-down little gate
+she saw--in the path shaded by the coppice--three figures whom she knew
+only too well, sauntering towards the stile leading into the lane.
+
+She felt quite giddy, as she called out sharply, "Amy Lee!"
+
+There was a great start. The three stood still, and looked about as if
+to see where the voice came from. Rose, recollecting the old woman's
+malicious eyes, got over the stile and came towards them. They had seen
+her by this time; she perceived that they were whispering; then the man
+retreated, and Florence and Amy came towards her, Florence holding Amy's
+hand, and pushing to the front.
+
+"Miss Lee," she said, "we weren't doing no harm. Only taking a walk
+before coming in."
+
+"Florence Cray," returned Miss Lee, "I don't want to have anything to
+say to you. If you have been teaching Amy to deceive her father and me,
+so much the worse. You need not come to work this afternoon. My sister,
+Mrs. Cuthbert, is come to see us, so I shall not require you. Come here,
+Amy."
+
+"You'll not be hard on her, Miss Lee," entreated good-natured Florence,
+feeling Amy's fingers cling to her. "I do assure you there's been
+nothing no one could except against. It's been all most prudent and
+proper all along."
+
+"I said I don't wish to hear nothing from you," said Rose. "If you call
+it prudent and proper to be walking with young men, when she is trusted
+to read to a sick child, I don't know what I shall hear next. Come here,
+Amy; come home with me."
+
+"Indeed, aunt," sobbed Amy, "I've been in every day to see him."
+
+"Come home now, Amy," said her aunt; "I can't talk to you now! No, don't
+cry--don't speak! I won't have you making yourself a show to the whole
+place any more than you have done already. That you should have deceived
+us so!" she sighed to herself. She was taking Amy in, not by the garden,
+but round the corner of the lane, to give a little more time for her to
+recover herself, and also to avoid facing Mrs. Rowe's eager eyes.
+
+"Please don't tell father," once sighed Amy.
+
+"Do you think I am going to be as deceitful as yourself?" was all the
+answer she got.
+
+Amy's was a meek nature, and she knew she had been doing very wrong, so
+she uttered no more entreaties; indeed, she was in such a trembling,
+choking state, that her aunt had to wait, and walk slowly, while the
+girl tried to control herself enough to appear respectably--in a little
+lurking hope that perhaps Aunt Rose would be better than her word, and
+at least not tell Aunt Amy, her godmother, or Cousin Ambrose. She, who
+had been always reckoned so good a girl, and had never been in disgrace
+before! That it should have happened at such a time!
+
+And when the garden gate was opened, there was a further shock. More
+people were in the house! Miss Manners, who had come home the night
+before, had come to inquire for little Edwin, and there was a buzz of
+voices, as she and Mrs. Cuthbert had most joyfully greeted one another.
+
+Miss Manners was delighted to see the young missionary, and the only
+drawback was that poor little Edwin was evidently so much worse. He had
+been gradually growing worse and weaker for the last ten days or a
+fortnight, Polly and Mrs. Rowe said, and his mother had sad nights with
+him; but the parish doctor had said it was only feverishness caused by
+the heat, when he saw the boy last week, and did not seem to think it of
+consequence. The family depended on the mother's work, and in hay-making
+time she could not stay at home. Mr. Somers was gone from home, so was
+Miss Manners, and no one had thought much about the poor child; but he
+had become so much worse in the course of the morning, that it was plain
+that his mother and the doctor must both be sent for without loss of
+time.
+
+Miss Manners came out into the garden with Mrs. Cuthbert, and as the
+aunt and niece came up, said she would find the messenger.
+
+"Had not you thought him so well, Amy?" she asked.
+
+"Oh, ma'am!" exclaimed Aunt Rose, always an outspoken person, "that's
+the worst trouble of all! Who would have thought this sly deceitful
+child could have made as if she was sitting all the time with that poor
+boy, while she was just walking all the time with that good-for-nothing
+groom up at the Arms. How I shall tell her poor father, I don't know. It
+will be enough to break his heart!"
+
+"It was all Florence Cray!" sobbed Amy.
+
+"Well," said Miss Manners, "of course her father must know about it; but
+since Amy the elder is only to be here three or four hours, don't you
+think it would be better not to spoil her visit for him? You can have it
+out in the evening, you know; but it would be a great pity to give him
+such a shock at once. Don't you think so, Amy?"
+
+"Indeed I do, ma'am," said Mrs. Cuthbert; "I am afraid the poor girl may
+have been to blame, but it will not be the worse for her to wait a
+little while, and my brother would be so much taken up with the matter,
+that I am afraid my Ambrose would never know his uncle as I should
+like."
+
+"I'm sure it will all be spoilt to me, any way," said poor Aunt Rose,
+half choked.
+
+"But you will bear the burthen alone, for your brother's sake and
+Charlotte's," said Miss Manners, cheerfully; "besides, you have your
+own dear old Amy to help you to bear it, and that is like old times."
+
+This comforted Rose a good deal. Miss Dora--as she and her sister Amy
+still called her--said she would not say good-bye, she would look in
+before the Cuthberts went, and say how the child was.
+
+The younger Amy was glad at first of the respite, but altogether it was
+the most dreadful day she ever spent. There was her father in his Sunday
+best coming out to meet them, wondering what had made them stay so long.
+Mrs. Cuthbert answered, to save Aunt Rose, that they had found the child
+much worse, and that Miss Manners had come in. This satisfied him, and
+they went in to the meal Aunt Charlotte had prepared--a very late
+luncheon, or early and solid tea, whichever it might be called--in the
+parlour, with the best china, and everything as nice as possible.
+
+Really Amy felt as if it would have been less dreadful to have been
+locked up in her room, or sitting sewing with Jessie in the workroom,
+than sitting up in the parlour with the rest, and hearing her father
+show his pride in her, making her fetch her prize for the religious
+examination, and talking of her almost as if he wanted to compare her
+with Aunt Amy's missionary son.
+
+And then when Ambrose Cuthbert was questioned about his plans, and told
+in a very modest quiet way where he was to go, and the work he was to do
+under a missionary to the Red Indians, Amy saw more and more how foolish
+she had been. What was that conceited groom whose boast was of the
+horses he had ridden, and the bets laid on them, compared with this
+young man? Which was the gentleman of the two? And this was her own
+first cousin, and she had forfeited the respect and esteem which he
+might have carried out with him! He would only--in those far
+countries--think of his cousin, Amy Lee, as a giddy, deceitful,
+hypocritical girl, who had carried on a flirtation under cover of a good
+work.
+
+Amy burnt to tell all the excuses she thought she had, and how she had
+been led on, and that it was not so bad as no doubt Aunt Rose thought;
+but she must keep all back. Only at last her father remarked that his
+darling was very silent--shy, he thought, with her grand scholarly
+cousin. He said he should like them to hear what a pretty voice she had,
+and told her to sing one of her hymns, such as "Abide with us;" but Amy
+could not do that. She put her face in her hands, choked, and began to
+cry.
+
+"Ah!" said Aunt Charlotte; "poor dear, it has been a great shock to her,
+the poor little boy being taken so much worse."
+
+It was a comfort to every one that at that moment Miss Manners came in
+through the shop, asking for Jessie Hollis.
+
+"The poor little boy is very ill," she said. "The only thing that seems
+to soothe him is a bit of a verse that his sister Mary says her teacher
+taught her. That was you--is it not, Jessie? Mary can only say half, and
+we can't make it out; but she says, 'If teacher was but here.'"
+
+Of course Miss Lee was ready to spare Jessie for such a reason, and she
+folded up her work while Miss Manners had a little talk with Mrs.
+Cuthbert, on the mingled pain and sweetness of the giving up her only
+son to be one of those sent forth "to sow beside all waters."
+
+"I am so glad he should have seen you, ma'am, before he leaves us," said
+his mother, the tears rising in her quiet eyes. "I only wish he could
+have seen Miss Edith--Mrs. Howard; for indeed, ma'am, I always feel that
+whatever good my children have learnt at home, was owing to the way I
+was brought up and the way Miss Edith used to talk to us."
+
+"Nothing will make my sister so happy as to hear it, Amy," said Miss
+Manners. "Somehow it seems to chime in with what I had ventured to bring
+as a little remembrance of your old home for your son. I had prepared it
+to send the St. Augustine's scholar, before I knew I should see him."
+
+She gave him a beautiful little _Christian Year_ and _Lyra Innocentium_
+in a case together, and as the book-marker was the illuminated text--
+
+          "In the morning sow thy seed,
+           And in the evening withhold not thine hand,
+           For thou knowest not which shall prosper."
+
+Ambrose Cuthbert thanked the lady in a very nice way, telling her that
+he should value her gift much, and that he hoped to make the poems his
+companions and often his guides in his work.
+
+So with a warm pressure of the hands of both mother and son, Miss
+Manners walked away with Jessie.
+
+"I think," she presently said, "some of your bread on the waters is
+coming back to you, Jessie. They say that little Mary Smithers has been
+such a comfort to her little brother, by repeating to him what she
+learns on Sundays, and that she has been so much more good and attentive
+to him of late."
+
+"I am sure, ma'am," said Jessie, "I never thought Mary Smithers seemed
+to understand anything."
+
+"We can never judge where the seed we sow will prosper," said Miss Dora,
+thinking within herself of the different results with Amy and Jessie.
+
+The little boy had been carried up to the bedroom. Old Mrs. Rowe was
+there, and his mother, who was trying to help him to lie more easily,
+while he moved feebly, but restlessly, and still looked at little
+Polly, who was repeating over and over some verse in which "Shepherd"
+was the only word that Miss Manners, well as she knew the children's
+tones, could make out. Jessie, however, knew it directly, and repeated--
+
+          "Gracious Saviour, gentle Shepherd,
+             Little ones are dear to Thee,
+           Gathered in Thine Arms and carried,
+             In Thy Bosom may we be
+           Sweetly, fondly, gently tended,
+             From all want and danger free."
+
+She could say the whole hymn, but the child grew restless as soon as she
+had passed beyond the first verse. She returned to it, once, twice, and
+then Polly got back what she had partly forgotten and went on with it,
+which was evidently what quieted the boy best. He seemed too far gone to
+attend to anything else; the sense of other words did not reach his
+ears, but these evidently gave him pleasure. The doctor had said he was
+dying, and the women thought he would sleep himself away. There seemed
+no more to be done. Polly had her verse to say to him, and no help
+seemed needed; so Miss Manners and Jessie went down the stairs again,
+and out into the garden, Jessie shedding many tears, but very far from
+sad ones. When she could speak, she said that the young woman in the
+hospital to whom she owed so much knew the hymn, and had so often
+repeated it, that Jessie had learnt it. She had used the first verse one
+Sunday when teaching the children about the Good Shepherd, and, having a
+little more time than usual, had tried to teach it to them--little
+thinking how she should thus meet it--but using it because she had grown
+fond of it for the sake of her friend, and of the new and higher
+feelings that were linked with the first learning of it.
+
+There was a great peace and thankfulness in her heart at having thus
+tasted a sort of first-fruits of her little attempt at sowing. It was
+soothing a death-bed! Might not she well rejoice that she had
+persevered, in spite of the temptation of gain, in not letting her head
+and heart be carried away with the fever of work, but giving the best
+part of herself to the task she had undertaken?
+
+Not that Jessie saw or thought that this had been the case. Yet if she
+had let herself be swept away with Grace's vehement desire to engross
+all the needlework, she must have given up her preparation; she would
+have been wearied, hurried, and very likely fretful and impatient. At
+any rate, there would not have been that kindness and earnestness which
+leads others to be good far more than the actual words of teaching.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE RECKONING.
+
+
+"IT is a right punishment for our sinful pride in her," said Aunt Rose,
+as she had a few last words alone with her elder sister.
+
+"Well, Rose," said Mrs. Cuthbert, "I would not be so very hard on the
+poor child. I've been watching her, and I think, though no doubt she has
+done very wrong, it was in a childish sort of way, and that you won't
+find there's been any real love-making or nonsense of that sort."
+
+"I'm sure, now I find the child could deceive us so, and act such a
+part, there's nothing I could not believe," said poor Aunt Rose.
+
+"That is sad enough, but I think you'll find it the worst, and that she
+was led into it by others."
+
+"That Florence Cray!" exclaimed Rose; "and what to do about her? How
+hinder her from spoiling our child, when she's bound apprentice to me? I
+wish I'd never listened to her father!"
+
+Here came Amy herself, sent up to say that the trap was ready, and her
+aunt must not be late for the train. She felt as if the last protection
+was gone when she saw her aunt and cousin driven away in the conveyance
+they had hired at Ellerby.
+
+Girls bred up like Florence Cray would have thought it all a great fuss
+about nothing. First and last Florence had seen nothing but fun in Amy's
+cheating her strait-laced aunts and getting a little diversion, while
+they wanted to shut her up with a cross child; but Amy had been bred up
+to a very different way of looking at things, and the whole afternoon
+had only been setting more fully before her how she had fallen from what
+she had imagined of herself last Lent!
+
+After all, the delay had made it better for her. Aunt Rose did not tell
+the story quite so hotly and violently as it would have come out in the
+first shock of wrath, but it was dreadful enough to hear her father
+say--
+
+"Amy, child, what is this? I never thought you would go for to do such a
+thing."
+
+"You that we had trusted from a baby," added Aunt Rose.
+
+Aunt Charlotte said nothing, but her looks were the worst of all to
+bear, they were so gentle and so sorrowful. And when Amy had sobbed out
+her story they told her that she had been so sly that they did not know
+how to believe her word.
+
+"Oh, father! you may believe me. I never told a story--no, I never did!"
+
+"And yet you could make as if you were going day by day to sit with that
+poor little chap, only that you might be tramping about the lanes with
+that there scamp!"
+
+It was what he took as the hypocrisy of the thing that chiefly wounded
+Mr. Lee, and when Amy declared she had always gone into the cottage and
+spoken to the boy, she was told, "Much she could have attended to him,
+since she had never seen that the poor child was dying."
+
+The fact was that Florence had hurried her a good deal, because Mr.
+Wingfield was to show them the rosettes the horses were to wear on the
+wedding-day.
+
+After all, Amy had to go up to her room only half believed and
+unforgiven. Her father had a great mind to have gone to have had it out
+with Florence Cray that night, but as some holiday people were there,
+he doubted whether he could see her alone, and waited till the morning.
+Then he called her into the parlour and said:
+
+"Florence Cray, what have you been doing with my girl?"
+
+"No harm, Mr. Lee," said Florence, frightened, but therefore pert, and
+resolved to stand up for her friend. "You may trust me for that! I know
+what is proper."
+
+Mr. Lee made an odd sort of noise, and said: "You do, eh! Proper to
+deceive her friends--"
+
+"Oh! now, Mr. Lee," said Florence, looking up in the droll, saucy way
+that served her instead of beauty, "it was only two old aunts. One
+always reckons it fair play by an old aunt."
+
+"Have done with nonsense like that," said Mr. Lee. "Now, Florence Cray,
+mine is a girl with no mother. My sisters, and I have done our best to
+keep her a good, innocent girl, and we can't but feel it a hard thing
+that you should come leading her to keep company, without our knowledge,
+with a fellow that you must know is not such as we would approve."
+
+"I'm sure I meant no harm," said Florence, beginning to cry; "I only
+thought it was dull for her, and took her for a walk. And you needn't be
+afraid, Mr. Lee, I never left them alone not one minute, nor he never
+said one word; nor did more than just shake hands. You may trust me, Mr.
+Lee."
+
+On the whole the Lees were satisfied that the mischief had not gone as
+far as such imprudence might have led. Mr. Wingfield would be gone in a
+few days, for the wedding was coming on, and Amy was certainly not in
+love with him. When she compared him with Ambrose Cuthbert, she felt
+sick of having been flattered for a moment by his attentions, and
+looked on the whole with the bitterest shame, as having led her away
+from all her good resolutions, and made her thus deceive and disobey her
+father and aunts. And when the knell rang for poor little Edwin Smithers
+she cried more than ever, feeling almost guilty of his death.
+
+She never wished for a moment to accept the invitation for which she had
+once been so eager, to see Miss Robson's wedding clothes and wedding
+presents. Grace Hollis went and took Jessie, and Florence Cray went too.
+
+These were a sight! Such gilt clocks! Such extraordinary contrivances
+for ink-stands, toilette apparatus, dinner services, and every service
+that could be thought of! Such girdles, chatelaines, rings and
+bracelets! Such silks and satins! such garments for morning, noon, and
+night, and even afternoon tea! And oh! such dressing-gowns!
+
+They sent Florence Cray home thinking over all the novels she had ever
+seen, where a girl at an inn married a rich man, and also thinking how
+to alter her best hat.
+
+They sent Grace Hollis home deep in plans how to get another order for
+plain work.
+
+And they sent home, Jessie very happy indeed, for a lady's-maid had
+asked whether a dozen more handkerchiefs could be marked with "Maude" in
+the same style as the Nina.
+
+Miss Needwood was really getting quite prosperous.
+
+The next day, almost every one, who could, went to see as much as
+possible of the wedding; so Aunt Rose had not yet to endure the presence
+of Florence, and to keep watch that she did not chatter to Amy, who was
+drooping and shame-stricken enough.
+
+That morning came a letter from Mrs. Cuthbert. She said she should be
+lonesome without Ambrose; and would her brother lend her his Amy for a
+few weeks, when she would do her best for the child, and not let her
+forget her needlework? This made things much easier to all; but Amy knew
+it was a very different going from home from what it might have been.
+
+Before she came back, Florence Cray had found what she called "working
+at Old Lee's" so dull, that she had teased her parents into requesting
+the return of part of her premium, and binding her to the chief milliner
+in Ellerby.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+WHICH SHALL PROSPER?
+
+
+MR. SOMERS had come home from his six weeks' holiday, and was talking
+over the village news with Miss Manners.
+
+She told him of little Edwin Smithers's death, of the summons to Jessie
+Hollis, and of the visit of Mrs. Cuthbert.
+
+"Of course it is wrong to judge," she said, "but do you remember that
+Lenten sermon, and the impression I told you it made?"
+
+"I remember well. It was on the seed, and on bringing forth fruit."
+
+"Well, when we had the Parable of the Sower the other day, I could not
+help thinking how it had worked out. There were some, like that Cray
+girl, who never seemed to take it in at all, but left it as something
+outside of them. Then three distinctly were moved to undertake
+something, the two Hollises and Amy Lee. Well, Grace dropped her
+missionary needlework as soon as that wedding order come in her way----"
+
+"Don't be hard on her, Dora."
+
+"No; but I'm afraid I can't help seeing that she does not seem to keep
+up her Sunday ways as she used. Then there's a sharp, worn, fretted way.
+I am very much afraid she is getting choked with the thorns."
+
+"I don't know Miss Hollis well," he said, thoughtfully, "but I am afraid
+she does not look much beyond her shop."
+
+"And my poor little Amy Lee responding so readily--seeming all that
+could be wished, and then showing herself so little able to stand
+temptation from that silly girl."
+
+"I hope there was no more than silliness."
+
+"I don't think there was; but still, after all the care Rose and
+Charlotte have taken to bring up that girl really refined, it was very
+disappointing to find her ready to be led away in an instant by foolish,
+vulgar admiration; above all, when it led her to neglect the good work
+she was supposed to be doing, it showed such shallowness."
+
+"It is a comfort that often trials, and even falls, do deepen the soil,
+so that the roots may have a better hold another time," said Mr. Somers.
+"I think there is good hope that so it will be with poor little Amy. And
+I think you have some good soil to tell me of."
+
+"Indeed I have. I am sure Jessie Hollis has shown herself good soil, and
+her work upon that very unpromising Mary Smithers showed itself
+remarkably. But that was not all I was thinking of. It seems to me that
+we have had a glimpse of what the hundredfold produce may be. Think of
+my dear sister Edith, working away at her class when there was much less
+help than now, and see what some of them have grown up, especially Amy
+Cuthbert. I know she had a good home, and other helps; but still I heard
+what she said of Edith's teaching and training. It has helped her to
+make that young Ambrose Cuthbert what he is,--and what may not be his
+harvest!"
+
+"As though a man should cast seed into the field," said Mr. Somers,
+thoughtfully. "First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn
+in the ear."
+
+"Ah! I am leaping on too fast. We only see a little of the
+first-fruits," said Miss Manners, "and take it for an earnest of the
+rest." And then she repeated Bishop Heber's hymn, which she had often
+taught the children:--
+
+          "O God, by Whom the seed is given,
+             By Whom the harvest blest,
+           Whose Word, like manna showers from heaven,
+             Is planted in our breast.
+
+          "Preserve it from the passing feet,
+             From plunderers of the air,
+           The sultry sun's intenser heat,
+             And weeds of worldly care.
+
+          "Though buried deep or thinly strewn,
+             Do Thou Thy grace supply:
+           The hope in earthly furrows strewn
+             Shall ripen in the sky."
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+          LONDON:
+
+          R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR,
+
+          BREAD STREET HILL.
+
+
+
+
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+          ABBEYCHURCH; OR, SELF-CONTROL AND SELF-CONCEIT,
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+
+          A LAND AND SEA STORY. By ELLEN E. LUSHINGTON,
+          Author of "Westfield Village," &c. 18mo, cloth.
+          2_s._
+
+          AN INVALID'S DAY: THOUGHTS ON INVALID LIFE. By the
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+          ASHLEY PRIORS; OR, THE BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. Second
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+          cloth. 2_s._ 6_d._
+
+          CASTLE BUILDERS; OR, THE DEFERRED CONFIRMATION. By
+          CHARLOTTE M. YONGE. Fifth Edition. Fcap. 8vo,
+          cloth 8_s._ 6_d._
+
+          CHRISTMAS MUMMERS, AND OTHER STORIES. By CHARLOTTE
+          M. YONGE, Crown 8vo, cloth. 3_s._ 6_d._
+
+          CONCEITED PIG. With Six Illustrations by HARRISON
+          WEIR. Royal 18mo, cloth. 1_s._
+
+          CONSTANT PRINCE. By CHRISTABEL R. COLERIDGE. Fcap.
+          8vo, cloth. 2_s._ 6_d._
+
+          PAMELA'S BEQUEST. By M. E. POOLE (Mrs. Henry
+          Sandford), Author of "Pictures of Cottage Life in
+          the West of England," &c. Post 8vo, cloth 2_s._
+          6_d._
+
+          COUNTESS KATE AND STOKESLEY SECRET. By CHARLOTTE
+          M. YONGE. In One Vol. Crown 8vo, cloth. With
+          Frontispiece. Third Edition. 5_s._
+
+          DAYS AND SEASONS; OR, CHURCH POETRY FOR THE YEAR.
+          Fourth Edition. 18mo, cloth extra, red edges.
+          2_s._ 6_d._
+
+          ERIC AND THORA: A STORY FOR CHILDREN. By the
+          Author of "St. Peter's Day." 18mo, cloth. With
+          Frontispiece. 1_s._ 6_d._
+
+          EVENING REST; OR, CLOSING THOUGHTS FOR EVERY DAY
+          IN THE CHRISTIAN YEAR. Third Edition. Post 8vo,
+          cloth, 2_s._ 6_d._; morocco extra, bevelled
+          boards, 6_s._; calf extra, limp, 5_s._ Cheaper
+          Edition, limp cloth, lettered, 1_s._; or Twelve
+          for 10_s._
+
+          FRIARSWOOD POST-OFFICE. By CHARLOTTE M. YONGE.
+          Eighth Edition. With Frontispiece. Demy 18mo,
+          cloth. 2_s._ 6_d._
+
+          JEANNIE GORDON; OR, "BLESSED ARE THEY THAT
+          THIRST." By the Author of "Joined to an Idol," &c.
+          18mo, cloth. With Frontispiece. 1_s._
+
+          JOINED TO AN IDOL. By G. S. M., Author of
+          "Winnie's Difficulties." Frontispiece and
+          Vignette. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, bevelled. 3_s._
+          6_d._
+
+          LADDIE. By the Author of "Miss Toosey's Mission."
+          18mo, cloth. 1_s._
+
+          LANGLEY SCHOOL. By CHARLOTTE M. YONGE. Fourth
+          Edition. Demy 18mo, cloth. 2_s._ 6_d._
+
+          LEONARD THE LION HEART. By CHARLOTTE M. YONGE.
+          Tenth Edition. 18mo, sewed. 6_d._
+
+          MICHAEL, THE CHORISTER. 18mo, sewed, 6_d._; 18mo,
+          cloth, 1_s._ Eleventh Edition.
+
+          MILES HARLING. By ALICE WEBER. Two Vols. Crown
+          8vo, cloth. £1 1_s._
+
+          MISS TOOSEY'S MISSION. By the Author of "Laddie."
+          Seventh Thousand. With Frontispiece. 18mo, cloth.
+          1_s._
+
+          MISTRESS OF COON HALL. By MARGARET R. CARTMELL,
+          Author of the "Viking." Crown 8vo, cloth. 5_s._
+
+          NEW GROUND. By CHARLOTTE M. YONGE. With
+          Frontispiece. Fcap. 8vo, cloth. Second Edition.
+          3_s._
+
+          NOTE-BOOK OF AN ELDERLY LADY. By ELIZABETH M.
+          SEWELL. Crown 8vo, cloth. 6_s._
+
+          OTTER (THE), AND OTHER STORIES OF ANIMALS AND
+          BIRDS. By the Author of "Friends in Fur and
+          Feathers." With Six Original Illustrations by
+          HARRISON WEIR. 8vo. Handsomely bound in cloth,
+          gilt. 5_s._
+
+          PALACE OF FUN: A STORY FOR CHILDREN. By C.
+          RICKARDS. 18mo, cloth. With Frontispiece. 1_s._
+
+          PIGEON PIE. By CHARLOTTE M. YONGE. Sixth Edition.
+          With Frontispiece. Demy 18mo, cloth, 1_s._
+
+          PLOUGHING AND SOWING; OR, THE ANNALS OF AN EVENING
+          SCHOOL IN A YORKSHIRE VILLAGE, AND THE WORK THAT
+          GREW OUT OF IT. By a Clergyman's Daughter. Sixth
+          Edition. Fcap. 8vo, cloth. 3_s._ 6_d._
+
+          QUESTIONS ON THE PSALMS. By CHARLOTTE M. YONGE.
+          Demy 18mo, sewed. 10_d._ Uniform with "Questions
+          on the Catechism," "Collects," &c. &c.
+
+          RAILROAD CHILDREN. By CHARLOTTE M. YONGE. Eleventh
+          Edition. 6_d._
+
+          RIGHT FEAR AND WRONG FEAR--"IT LOOKS SO!"--GOSSIP.
+          By the Author of "Sunshine in Sickness." 18mo,
+          cloth. 1_s._
+
+          LADS AND LASSES OF LANGLEY. A STORY BOOK FOR
+          CHILDREN. By CHARLOTTE M. YONGE. 18mo, cloth.
+          2_s._
+
+          SIX CUSHIONS. By CHARLOTTE M. YONGE. Second
+          Edition. With Frontispiece. Royal 18mo, cloth.
+          3_s._
+
+          SPRING AND AUTUMN. By PHOEBE ALLEN, Author of
+          "Gilmory." With Preface by the late Canon ASHWELL,
+          M.A. 18mo, cloth. With Frontispiece. 1_s._ 6_d._
+
+          STOKESLEY SECRET. By CHARLOTTE M. YONGE. Fourth
+          Edition. Royal 18mo, cloth. 2_s._ 6_d._
+
+          STORIES ON PROVERBS. 18mo, cloth. 1_s._ 6_d._
+
+          STORY LECTURES FOR COTTAGE READINGS, BIBLE
+          CLASSES, MOTHERS' MEETINGS, &c. By C. M. HALLETT.
+          18mo, cloth. 1_s._ 6_d._
+
+          SUNSHINE IN SICKNESS. By the Author of "Pictures
+          of the Heavens," &c. Fourth Edition. Fcap. 8vo,
+          cloth. 2_s._
+
+          SUNSHINE IN SORROW. By the Author of "Sunshine in
+          Sickness." A New and Cheaper Edition. Post 8vo,
+          cloth. 2_s._ 6_d._
+
+          TE DEUM. MILES'S Illustrations. Square 16mo,
+          cloth, red lines, gilt edges. 2_s._
+
+          VERSES ON THE GOSPELS, FOR SUNDAYS AND HOLYDAYS.
+          By CHARLOTTE M. YONGE. Demy 18mo, paper covers,
+          6_d._; cloth, 1_s._
+
+          WESTFIELD VILLAGE. By ELLEN E. LUSHINGTON. Fcap.
+          8vo, cloth. 2_s._
+
+          WOMANKIND. By CHARLOTTE M. YONGE. Fourth Edition.
+          Crown 8vo. 6_s._
+
+
+          London: WALTER SMITH (late MOZLEY),
+          34, King Street, Covent Garden.
+
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+Obvious punctuation errors were corrected.
+
+Page 62, word "to" added to text (we can to get)
+
+Page 141, "neet" changed to "meet" (out to meet)
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOWING AND SEWING***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 32200-8.txt or 32200-8.zip *******
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+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Sowing and Sewing, by Charlotte Mary Yonge</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: Sowing and Sewing</p>
+<p>       A Sexagesima Story</p>
+<p>Author: Charlotte Mary Yonge</p>
+<p>Release Date: May 2, 2010  [eBook #32200]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOWING AND SEWING***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>E-text prepared by Emmy, Juliet Sutherland,<br />
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 320px;">
+<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="320" height="500" alt="Cover" title="" />
+</div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h1>SOWING AND SEWING.</h1>
+
+<h3>A Sexagesima Story.</h3>
+
+
+<h3>BY</h3>
+
+<h2>CHARLOTTE M. YONGE.</h2>
+
+<div class='center'><br /><br /><br />
+New York:<br />
+E. P. DUTTON AND CO.,<br />
+39, WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET.<br />
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>PREFACE.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Perhaps</span> some may read allusions
+to a sacred Parable underlying this
+little story. If so, I hope they will
+not think it an irreverent mode of
+applying the lesson.</p>
+
+<div class='sig'>
+C. M. YONGE.<br />
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Book spine and contents">
+<tr><td align='left'><img src="images/spine.jpg" width="85" height="400" alt="Book spine" title="" />
+</td><td align='left'><div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents">
+<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'><br />CHAPTER I.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left' valign='bottom'>THE SERMON</td><td align='right'><small>PAGE</small><br /><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'><br />CHAPTER II.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>THE SUNDAY SCHOOL</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_13">13</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'><br />CHAPTER III.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>THE WORKING PARTY</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_28">28</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'><br />CHAPTER IV.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>TEACHER AMY</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_49">49</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'><br />CHAPTER V.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span>THE TROUSSEAU</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_64">64</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'><br />CHAPTER VI.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>STITCH, STITCH, STITCH</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_79">79</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'><br />CHAPTER VII.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>WANDERING EYES</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_101">101</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'><br />CHAPTER VIII.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>AMY'S VISITS</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_115">115</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'><br />CHAPTER IX.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>AWKWARD MEETINGS</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_127">127</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'><br />CHAPTER X.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>THE RECKONING</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_150">150</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'><br />CHAPTER XI.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>WHICH SHALL PROSPER?</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_159">159</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p>
+<h2>SOWING AND SEWING.</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SERMON.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Four</span> girls were together in a pleasant
+cottage room with a large window, over
+which fluttered some dry sticks, which
+would in due time bear clematis and
+Virginia creeper leaves.</p>
+
+<p>Three of them were Miss Lee's apprentices,
+and this room had been built
+out at the back of the baker's shop for
+them. The place was the property of
+the Lee family themselves, and nobody in
+Langley was more respected than they
+were. Ambrose Lee, whose name was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span>
+over the baker's shop, and who kept
+a horse and cart, was always called
+Mr. Lee.</p>
+
+<p>He had married a pretty, delicate
+young girl, who had soon fallen into
+such hopeless ill-health, that his sister
+Charlotte was obliged to live at home
+to attend to her and to the shop. And
+when young Mrs. Lee died, leaving
+three small children, another sister,
+Rose, gave up her place to help in
+the care of her old father and the
+little ones.</p>
+
+<p>Rose Lee had been a sewing maid, and,
+being clever, had become a very fair dressmaker;
+so she took in needlework from
+the first, and when good old master Lee
+died, and the children had grown old
+enough to be more off her hands, she
+became the dressmaker and sempstress of
+the place, since there was no doubt that
+all she took in hand would be thoroughly
+well turned out of hand, from a child's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span>
+under garment up to Mrs. and Miss
+Manners's dresses. "For," as her sister
+Charlotte proudly said of her, "the ladies
+had everything made down here, except
+one or two dresses from London for the
+fashion." Her nephews were both from
+home, one as a pupil-teacher, the other
+at a baker's with a superior business,
+and her niece, Amy, the only girl of the
+family, had begun as a pupil-teacher,
+but she had such bad headaches at the
+end of her first year that her father
+was afraid to let her go on studying for
+examinations, and cancelled her engagement,
+and thus she became an assistant
+to her aunt. Then Jessie Hollis, from
+the shop, came home from her aunt's,
+unwilling to go to service, and begged
+Miss Lee to take her and teach her
+dressmaking; and, having thus begun,
+she consented, rather less willingly, to
+take likewise Florence Cray from the
+Manners Arms, chiefly because she had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span>
+known her mother all her life, and believed
+her to be careful of the girl;
+besides which, it was a very respectable
+house.</p>
+
+<p>As plain work, as well as dressmaking,
+was done, there was quite enough employment
+for all the hands, as well as for the
+sewing machine, at which Amy, a fair,
+delicate-looking girl, was whirring away,
+while Jessie was making the button-holes
+of a long <i>princesse</i> dress, and Florence
+tacking in some lining; or rather each
+was pausing a little in her work to
+answer Grace Hollis, Jessie's sister, a
+businesslike-looking young person, dressed
+in her town-going hat and jacket, who
+had stepped in, on her way to meet the
+Minsterham omnibus, to ask whether
+Miss Lee wanted to have anything done
+for her, and likewise how many yards of
+narrow black velvet would be wanted for
+the trimming of her own and Jessie's
+spring dresses.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Miss Lee was gone up to the house for
+a grand measuring of all the children for
+their new frocks; but Amy began to calculate
+and ask questions about the width
+and number of rows, and Jessie presently
+said&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"After all, I think mine will look very
+well without any round the skirt."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Jessie, I thought you said the
+dress you saw looked so genteel with the
+three rows&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Jessie; "but I have
+thought since&mdash;" and she hesitated and
+blushed.</p>
+
+<p>Amy got up from the machine, came
+towards her, and, laying her hand on her,
+said, gently&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I know, Jessie."</p>
+
+<p>"And I know, though you wanted to
+keep it a secret!" cried Florence. "I
+was at church too last night!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, I saw you, Florence; and
+wasn't it beautiful?" said Amy, earnestly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Most lovely! It is worth something
+to have a stranger here sometimes to get
+a fresh hint from!" said Florence.</p>
+
+<p>"I call that more than a hint," said
+Jessie, in a low voice. "I am so glad
+you felt it as I did, Flossy."</p>
+
+<p>"Felt it! You don't mean that you
+got hold of it? Then you can tell
+whether it was cut on the bias, and how
+the little puffs were put on!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, what are you thinking of,
+Flossy?" exclaimed Amy. "Bias&mdash;puffs!
+One would think you were talking of a
+dress!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, of course I was. Of that lovely
+self-trimming on that cashmere dress of
+the lady that came with Miss Manners.
+What&mdash;what are you laughing at,
+Grace?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! Florence," said Amy, in a disappointed
+tone; "we thought you meant
+the sermon."</p>
+
+<p>"The sermon?" said Florence, half<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span>
+annoyed, half puzzled; "well, it was a
+very good one; but&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"It did make one feel&mdash;oh, I don't
+know how!" said Jessie, much too eager
+to share her feelings with the other girls,
+even to perceive that Florence wanted to
+go off to the trimming.</p>
+
+<p>"Wasn't it beautiful&mdash;most beautiful&mdash;when
+he said it was not enough only
+just not to be weeds, or to be only flowers,
+gay and lovely to the eye?" said Amy.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," went on Jessie; "he said that
+we might see there were some flowers
+just for beauty, all double, and with no
+fruit or good at all in them, but dying
+off into a foul mass of decay."</p>
+
+<p>"Ay," said Grace; "I thought of your
+dahlias, that, what with the rain and the
+frost, were&mdash;pah!&mdash;the nastiest mess at
+last."</p>
+
+<p>"Then he said," proceeded Jessie,
+"that there were some fair and comely,
+some not, but only bringing forth just<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span>
+their own seeds, not doing any real good,
+like people that keep themselves to themselves,
+and think it is enough to be out
+of mischief and do good to themselves
+and their families."</p>
+
+<p>"And didn't you like it," broke in
+Amy, "when he said that was not what
+God asked of us? He wanted us to
+be like the wheat, or the vine, or the
+apple, or the strawberry, some plain in
+blossom, some fair and lovely to look at,
+but valued for the fruit they bring forth,
+not selfishly, just to keep up their own
+stock, but for the support and joy and
+blessing of all!"</p>
+
+<p>"One's heart just burnt within one,"
+continued Jessie, "when he bade us each
+one to go home and think what we could
+do to bring forth fruit for the Master,
+some thirty, some sixty, some an hundredfold.
+Not only just keeping oneself
+straight, but doing something for Christ
+through His members."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Only think of its being for Christ
+Himself," said Amy softly.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Grace, "I thought we
+might take turns to go to Miss Manners's
+missionary working parties. I never gave
+in to them before, but I shall not be comfortable
+now unless I do something. And
+was that what you meant about the velvet
+trimming, Jessie? It will save&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Fifteen pence," said Jessie.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well&mdash;or you may say threepence
+more. So we can put that into
+the box, if you like. I must be going
+now, and look sharp if I'm to catch the
+bus. So good-bye, all of you."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! but won't you have the self-trimming,"
+broke in Florence. "Perhaps
+she'll be there on Friday night, and then
+we might amongst us make out how it is
+done."</p>
+
+<p>"Florence Cray, for shame!" said Grace.
+"I do believe you minded nothing but
+that dress all through that sermon."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Florence, who was a
+good-humoured girl, "there was no helping
+it, when there it was just opposite in
+the aisle, and I'd never seen one like it;
+and as to the sermon, you've just given it
+to me over again, you've got it so pat;
+and I'll go to the missionary work meeting
+too, Grace, and very like the young
+lady will be there, and I can see her
+trimming."</p>
+
+<p>"If you go for that, I would go to a
+fashion-book at once," said Grace; "but
+I must really be off now, I've not another
+minute to stop."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh dear, I forgot," cried Florence,
+jumping up, "I was to ask you to call for
+our best tea-pot at Bilson's. And my
+mother wants a dozen&mdash;" and there her
+voice was lost as she followed Grace out of
+the room through the shop, and even along
+the road, discoursing on her commissions.</p>
+
+<p>Amy and Jessie were left together, and
+Amy stood up and said:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Dear, I am so glad you felt it as I
+did!"</p>
+
+<p>"One could not help it, if one listened
+at all," said Jessie. "Amy, I must be
+doing something for His sake. I can't
+rest now without it. You teach at
+the Sunday school. Don't you think I
+might?"</p>
+
+<p>Amy meditated a little.</p>
+
+<p>"I think they would make up a class for
+you. When Miss Pemberton's niece goes
+away, the class she takes has to be joined
+to her aunt's, and that makes a large
+one."</p>
+
+<p>"Then will you speak to Miss Manners
+for me?" asked Jessie. "Are they
+little girls or big ones?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that's the second class. They
+would be sure not to give you that," said
+Amy, as if she thought the aspiration
+very high, not to say presumptuous. "Perhaps
+Margaret Roller, the pupil-teacher,
+you know, may take that. Then I should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>
+have hers and you mine. They are dear
+little girls, some of them, only Susan
+Bray always wants a tight hand over her,
+Polly Smithers is so stupid, and Fanny
+Morris is so sly, one always has to be on
+the watch."</p>
+
+<p>"Here she comes," said Florence, who
+was the nearest to the window, and the
+entrance of Aunt Rose, a brisk, fair
+little woman, young looking for her age,
+recalled all her "young ladies," as Florence
+and Jessie, and perhaps Amy likewise,
+preferred being called, to recollect
+that stitching was, at that moment at
+least, the first thing to be attended to.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Perhaps</span> Amy's business-like tone about
+the school classes fell a little flat upon
+Jessie's ear. She had not been to a Sunday
+school in her childhood. Her father
+had been a prosperous upholsterer's foreman
+in Minsterham, and Grace and Jessie
+had gone to an "academy" till, when
+they were sixteen and fourteen years old,
+their father died of a fever, and their
+mother, who had a cottage of her own at
+Langley, resolved on coming back and
+setting up a small shop there for all sorts
+of wares, with Clementina Hollis over
+the door.</p>
+
+<p>Jessie was about eighteen, two years<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>
+younger than her sister. She had always
+been a bright, quick, lively girl, but never
+very thoughtful, and much too inquisitive,
+till her curiosity had brought on her
+a terrible accident, which had kept her
+laid up in a hospital for many weeks.
+She had come home quite well at last,
+and much improved. A fellow patient,
+and likewise a lady who had visited her
+and lent her books, had both made much
+impression on her. She cared about right
+and wrong as she had never done before,
+was more useful at home, and tried to
+restrain her inclination to find out all
+about everything; she said her prayers
+more carefully, went to Church more
+often, and heeded more what she heard;
+and altogether she was what her mother
+called an altered girl. This was Lent,
+and a clergyman was staying with Mr.
+Somers to preach a course of sermons on
+the Friday evenings, and it was one of
+these that had so much struck these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>
+young girls, and had put into their minds
+for the first time, with any real force,
+the full sense that the true Christian
+must seek to work for the good of the
+household of Christ as well as his own
+household, and that "bringing forth good
+fruit" does not simply mean taking care
+of oneself, and trying to save one's own
+soul.</p>
+
+<p>The language had been beautiful and
+stirring, and there was a burning desire
+in more than one heart to be doing something
+for Christ's sake. The first thing
+that Jessie thought of was the Sunday
+school. She had read books about it,
+and her fellow patient was full of ardour
+about "training little lambs," as she
+called it, so that it seemed the most
+beautiful and suitable task she could
+undertake.</p>
+
+<p>Amy Lee, on the other hand, hardly
+knew how to spend a Sunday without
+the school. She had been a scholar<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span>
+there until she had quite outgrown the
+first class, and had been more than a
+year confirmed, and then she had become
+a teacher of the little ones. She liked
+the employment, and was fond of the
+children; she would have been sorry to
+drop the connection with Miss Manners
+or with Miss Joy, the mistress, and the
+rest of the school staff; she was pleased
+to work for and with Mr. Somers and
+Miss Manners, and she had been trained
+to be reverent and attentive; but it had
+never occurred to her to think of it as
+more than a nice and good thing to do,
+or to look on it as a work undertaken
+for Christ's sake.</p>
+
+<p>"Teaching at school, I do that already,"
+she said to herself, when Aunt Rose's
+entrance had made her work her machine
+more and her tongue less. "I must get
+something more to do. Oh! I know.
+There's poor old half-blind Mrs. Long.
+She is left to herself terribly, they do<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>
+say, and I'll go and tidy her up, and see
+to her and read to her every day. I
+could do it before my work and after.
+Maybe I might get her to be a better
+old woman than she ever has been.
+Books say that nothing so softens an
+old woman as a nice, bright young girl
+coming in to make much of her, and
+I'm sure I'm nice and bright&mdash;not so
+much in myself, but compared with the
+whole lot of Longs."</p>
+
+<p>So Amy told her plan to her aunts,
+as soon as Florence and Jessie had gone
+home to dinner.</p>
+
+<p>The two aunts looked at one another,
+and Aunt Charlotte said, "Did the
+sermon make you think of that?" in
+rather a doubtful tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Amy. "One seemed to
+long to be doing some good, not be only
+an empty flower, as he said."</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Long," said Aunt Rose; "she
+ain't a very nice person to fix upon."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But no one wants it so much, aunt,"
+said Amy.</p>
+
+<p>"That's true," said Aunt Charlotte.
+"Well, Amy, we must think about it,
+and speak to your father. Run out
+now, and gather a bit of parsley for
+his cheese."</p>
+
+<p>Amy knew it was to get her out of
+the way, and felt rather disappointed
+that the proposal was not seized upon
+at once, and applauded.</p>
+
+<p>"She's a good girl," said Aunt Rose.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, so she is, and I don't like to
+stand in her way," said Aunt Charlotte.</p>
+
+<p>"But to pitch on old Sally Long of
+all folk in the world!" said Rose.</p>
+
+<p>"There's no doubt but she does want
+something done for her; but I misdoubt
+me if she will choose our Amy to do it.
+Besides, I don't like her tongue. That's
+what daunts me most."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. If she took it kind of the girl,
+she would never be satisfied without<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span>
+talking to her of all the old backbiting
+tales that ever was! And we that have
+kept our girl up from hearing of all evil
+just like a lady&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What is it?" said Ambrose Lee,
+himself coming in, after putting up his
+cart.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, that sermon last night has
+worked upon our Amy, so that she wants
+to do something extra," said Aunt Rose.</p>
+
+<p>"A right down good sermon it was,"
+said the father; "a bit flowery, to suit
+the maidens, I suppose."</p>
+
+<p>"And she said it all off to me, quite
+beautiful," said Rose, who had stayed at
+home.</p>
+
+<p>"And what does the child want to be
+doing? I won't have her go back to her
+books again, to worry her head into
+aching."</p>
+
+<p>"No, that's not what she wants. Her
+notion is to run in and out and see to
+old Widow Long."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Widow Long!" exclaimed the baker.
+"Why, she's got as slandering a tongue
+as any in the parish! Give the poor
+old soul a loaf or a sup of broth if you
+like, but I'll not have my girl running in
+and out to hear all the gossip of the
+place, and worse."</p>
+
+<p>"I knew you would say so, Ambrose,"
+returned Charlotte. "All the same, the
+child's thought shames me that I've
+never done anything for the poor old
+thing; and she won't harm me."</p>
+
+<p>Ambrose chuckled a little. "I don't
+know but aunt likes a spice of gossip as
+much as her niece. 'Tis she tells us all
+the news."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I can get plenty of that in the
+shop, without going to Dame Long for
+it," said Charlotte, laughing. "I like
+the real article, genuine and unadulterated."</p>
+
+<p>They were laughing at Aunt Charlotte's
+wit when Amy came in, and she looked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>
+from one to the other, afraid they were
+laughing at her project, and ready to be
+offended or hurt. She did not like it
+when her father said, "Look here, my
+girl, Aunt Charlotte says Dame Long's
+dish of tongue is too spicy for you, and
+she must have it for herself."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know what you mean, father,"
+said Amy, nearly crying, "I didn't want
+it for that."</p>
+
+<p>"No, you didn't, child," said Charlotte;
+"but come along here, I want you to help
+me dish up."</p>
+
+<p>Amy came with the tears standing in
+her eyes into the back kitchen, vexed,
+angered, and ready to be cross. Her
+aunt set her to prepare the dish for the
+Irish stew, while she said, "Father was
+at his jokes with me, Amy. He don't
+like you to be running in and out to old
+Sally Long by yourself; no more does
+your Aunt Rosy nor I; but the poor old
+body didn't ought to be neglected, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>
+the sermon was just as much for me as
+for you, so I've made up my mind to look
+after her a bit, and you may come in
+with me sometimes if you like."</p>
+
+<p>"That was not what I meant," said
+Amy, rather fretfully.</p>
+
+<p>"I dare say not. There, mind what
+you are about, or you'll have that dish
+down. Where's the flour? Come, now,
+Amy, don't be daunted, if you can't do
+good quite in your own way; why
+shouldn't you ask Miss Dora now?"</p>
+
+<p>Amy muttered and pouted. "I'm not
+such a child now!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ain't you then, to be making such a
+pout at not getting just your own way."</p>
+
+<p>Down came the dish with a bounce on
+the table, and away ran Amy up the
+stairs, where she cried and choked, and
+thought how hard it was that she should
+be hindered, and laughed at, and scolded,
+when she wanted to do good, and bring
+forth the fruit of good works.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She heard Aunt Rose ask where she
+was, and her Aunt Charlotte answer,
+"Oh! she will be down in a minute."</p>
+
+<p>She felt it kind that no one said that
+she was in the sulks. The relief did her
+good; she could not bear that any
+one should guess what was amiss. So
+she washed her face in haste, tidied her
+hair and collar, and hoped that she looked
+as if she had gone up for nothing else.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps her father had had a hint, and
+she was his great pet, so he took care that
+the apprentices should not suspect that
+Amy had been "upset." So he began to tell
+what had made him late at home. He
+had overtaken poor Widow Smithers in
+much trouble, for she had had a note
+from the hospital to say that her little
+boy, Edwin, must be discharged as incurable.
+It was a hip complaint, and he
+could not walk, and she had not been
+able to find any way of getting him home.</p>
+
+<p>It so happened that all the gentlefolks<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>
+were out for the day, and she did not
+get her letter in time before the market
+people set off. She was indeed too poor
+to hire a conveyance, and was going in,
+fearing that she might have to carry this
+nine-year-old boy herself five miles unless
+she could get a lift. So Mr. Lee had
+driven her into the town, and after doing
+his work there, had come up to the hospital,
+and had taken her in with poor
+little Edwin, who was laid on a shawl in
+the cart, but cried a good deal at the
+jolting. The doctors said that they could
+do no more for the poor little fellow, and
+she would have to take him home and
+do the best she could for him.</p>
+
+<p>It fell very hard upon her, poor woman,
+for she was obliged to go out to work
+every day, since she had four children,
+and only Harry, the one who was older
+then Edwin, earned anything&mdash;and indeed
+he only got three shillings a week for
+minding some cows on the common. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>
+two girls <i>must</i> go to school, and indeed
+they were too young to be of much use
+and the boy would have to be left alone
+all day, except for the dinner hour, as he
+had been before the hospital had been
+tried for him.</p>
+
+<p>"There, Amy," said Aunt Charlotte,
+as they were clearing away the dinner
+things after the menfolk had gone out,
+"there's something you could do. It
+would be a real kindness to go in and
+see after that poor little man."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," added Rose; "you might run
+in at dinner time, and I'd spare you a
+little time then, and you might read to
+him, and cheer him up&mdash;yes, and teach
+him a bit too."</p>
+
+<p>"Edwin Smithers was always a very
+tiresome, stupid little boy," said Amy,
+rather crossly, from her infant school
+recollections.</p>
+
+<p>"Then he will want help all the more,"
+said Aunt Rose, and it sounded almost<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>
+like mimicry of what Amy had said of
+old Mrs. Long.</p>
+
+<p>She did not like it at all. It is the
+devices of our own heart that we prefer
+to follow, whether for good or harm, and
+specially when we think them good. And
+yet we specially pray that we may do all
+such good works as our Lord hath <i>prepared
+for us to walk in</i>, as if we were to
+rejoice in having our opportunities set
+out before us, yet the teaching a dull
+little boy of whom she had had experience
+in the infant school, did not seem
+to her half such interesting work as
+converting an old woman of whom strange
+things were said.</p>
+
+<p>However, Amy was on the whole a
+good girl, though she had her little
+tempers, and did not guard against them
+as she ought, thinking that what was soon
+over did not signify.</p>
+
+<p>By and by, Jessie came back radiant
+with gladness, and found a moment to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>
+say, before Florence Cray came in, that
+her mother was quite agreeable to her
+teaching in the Sunday school, if Miss
+Manners liked it. She had gone there
+herself for some years when she and Miss
+Manners were both young, and she was
+well pleased that her daughter should be
+helpful there.</p>
+
+<p>Amy, who was fond of Jessie, was delighted
+to think of having her company
+all the way to school, and her little fit
+of displeasure melted quite away. But
+when Florence was heard coming in, both
+girls were silent on their plans, knowing
+that she would only laugh at their wishing
+to do anything so dull.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE WORKING PARTY.</h3>
+
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Are</span> these fruits of the sermon on
+Friday night?" said Miss Manners to
+Mr. Somers, as they finished winding up
+their parish accounts on Monday morning.
+"Not only, as you know, here is
+Grace Hollis wanting to join Mrs.
+Somers's Tuesday working parties, Jessie
+begging to help at the Sunday school;
+but I find that good little Amy Lee went
+and sat with poor Edwin Smithers for
+half an hour on Sunday after church,
+showing him pictures, and she has promised
+his mother to come and look in
+on him every day. It is very nice of the
+Lees to have thought of it, and to spare
+her."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Mrs. Somers, "the Lees
+are always anxious to do right."</p>
+
+<p>"I had a talk with Charlotte just now.
+She came to get some flannel for Mrs.
+Long. She says she will make it up for
+her, if the old woman can have it out of
+the club. Well, she says it is quite
+striking how all those girls have been
+moved by Mr. Soulsby's sermon on
+Friday evening. Amy came home and
+nearly said it all off to her Aunt Rose,
+and the girls were all talking about it
+in the workroom in the morning, full of
+earnestness to make some effort."</p>
+
+<p>"I saw they were looking very attentive,"
+said Mr. Somers. "Shall you
+accept Jessie Hollis's help?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think I can make a class up for her."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose it would be a pity to check
+her, but do you imagine that she knows
+anything?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know; but she is not at all
+a stupid girl, and she cannot go far wrong<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>
+with the questions on the Catechism and
+Gospels that I shall give her. Indeed I
+had thought of asking her and Margaret
+Roller, and, perhaps, Amy Lee, to come
+and prepare the lessons here on Friday
+evenings after church."</p>
+
+<p>"A good plan," said Mr. Somers, "if
+it be not giving you too much to do."</p>
+
+<p>"Not a bit, especially at this time of
+year, when nobody wants me in the
+evenings. My only doubt is whether it
+is not keeping the girls out too late, but
+I will see whether it can be managed.
+The children might be better taught, and
+the teachers might learn something themselves
+in this indirect way."</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps this was Miss Dora's way of
+acting on the sermon, but she could not
+begin that week, as a friend was coming
+to spend the Friday with her.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime Grace Hollis had joined
+the working party that met every Tuesday
+afternoon for an hour to make clothes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>
+for a very poor district in London. She
+had been sometimes known to say that
+it was all waste of time to make things
+and send them away to thriftless, shiftless
+folk; but she had heard something
+of the love of our neighbour, and our
+membership with the rest of our Lord's
+Body, which had touched her heart. So
+she brought her thimble and needle, to
+join the working party who sat round the
+Rectory dining-table. Mrs. Somers and
+Miss Manners shook hands, made her welcome,
+and found her a seat and some work.
+Grace looked about her to be sure who
+the party were. Mrs. Nowell, the gardener's
+wife, sat next to her. Then came
+little Miss Agnes from the Hall, sewing
+hard away, and Lucy Drew from Chalk-pit
+Farm, who was about her age, next
+to her, and old Miss Pemberton knitting.</p>
+
+<p>"A mixed lot," said Grace to herself,
+and then her eye lit upon deformed
+Naomi Norris, of whom she did not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>
+approve at all. Did not the girl come
+of a low dissenting family, and had not
+her father the presumption to keep a
+little shop in Hazel Lane which took away
+half the custom, especially as they pretended
+to make toffee? Meanwhile here
+was Miss Wenlock, the governess at the
+squire's, and Miss Dora reading aloud to
+the party in turn. It was the history of
+some mission work in London, and Miss
+Lee, who was there, listened with great
+pleasure, as did many of the others. Indeed
+she well might, for her eldest sister's
+son hoped one day to be a missionary.
+But Grace was not used to being read
+to, and, as she said, "it fidgeted her
+sadly," and she was wondering all the
+time what mistakes mother would make
+in the shop without her, and she began
+to be haunted with a doubt whether she
+had put out a parcel of raisins that Farmer
+Drew's man was to call for. The worry
+about it prevented her from attending to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>
+a word that was read; indeed she could
+hardly keep herself from jumping up,
+making up an excuse, and rushing home
+to see about the raisins!</p>
+
+<p>Then she greatly disapproved of the
+shape of the bedgown she had been set to
+make, and did not believe it would sit
+properly. It was ladies' cutting towards
+which she felt contemptuous, and yet she
+would have thought it impolite to interfere.
+Besides, it might make the whole
+sitting go on longer, and Grace was burning
+to get home. At last the reading
+ended, but oh! my patience, that creature
+Naomi was actually putting herself forward
+to ask some nonsensical question, where
+some place was, and Miss Agnes must
+needs get a map, and every one go and
+look at it&mdash;Grace too, not to be behindhand
+or uncivil to the young ladies;
+but had not she had enough of maps
+and such useless stupid things long ago
+when she left school at Miss Perkins's?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>When at last this was over, Mrs.
+Somers came and spoke to her while she
+was putting on her hat, and thanked her
+pleasantly, saying that she was afraid
+that beginning in the middle of a book
+made it less interesting, but that one day
+more would finish it. Then she added
+"I don't like the pattern of that bedgown,
+do you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Mrs. Somers, not at all," replied
+Grace. "It quite went against me to
+put good work into it."</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder whether you could help us
+to a better shape next time," said Mrs.
+Somers. "We should be very much
+obliged to you. This pattern came out
+of a needlework book, and I am not
+satisfied about it."</p>
+
+<p>Grace promised, and went away in
+better humour, but more because she had
+been made important than because she
+cared for what she had been doing. She
+was glad no one could say she had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>
+been behindhand with her service, but it
+was a burthen to her, and she did not
+open her mind to enter into it so as to
+make it otherwise.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, her mind was more full of her
+accounts and the bad debts, and of the
+cheapest way of getting in her groceries
+than of anything else. As she walked
+back through the village she wondered
+whether Mrs. Somers and Miss Manners
+would send to her mother's for their brown
+sugar this summer. That would make
+it worth while to go to a better but more
+expensive place, and have in a larger
+stock; and Grace went on reckoning the
+risk all the time, and wondering whether
+the going to the working parties would
+secure the ladies' custom. In that case
+the time would not be wasted. It did
+not come into Grace's head whether what
+she had thought of for the service of God
+she might be turning to the service of
+Mammon, if she only just endured it for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>
+the sake of standing well with the gentry.
+But then, was it not her duty to consider
+her shop and her mother's interest?</p>
+
+<p>She was quite vexed and angry when
+she saw Jessie go and fetch the big
+Family Bible that evening, turning off the
+whole pile of lesson-books to which it
+formed the base.</p>
+
+<p>"Now what can you be doing that
+for?" she said sharply.</p>
+
+<p>"I want to prepare my lesson for to-morrow,"
+said Jessie.</p>
+
+<p>"And is not a little Bible good enough
+for you, without upsetting the whole
+table?"</p>
+
+<p>"My Bible has got no references," said
+Jessie.</p>
+
+<p>"And what do little children like that
+want of references? If you are to be
+turning the house upside down and
+wasting time like that over preparing as
+you call it, I don't know as ma will let
+you undertake it."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I have ironed all the collars and cuffs,
+Grace," said Jessie; "yes, and looked
+over the stockings."</p>
+
+<p>Grace had no more to say; she knew
+Jessie had wonderful eyes for a ladder or
+a hole; but it worried her and gave her a
+sense of disrespect that the pyramid which
+surmounted the big Bible should be interfered
+with, or that the Book itself should
+have its repose interfered with "for a
+pack of dirty children," when it had
+never been opened before except to register
+christenings, or to be spread out and
+read when some near relation died, as
+part of the mourning ceremony.</p>
+
+<p>It really made her feel as if something
+unfortunate had happened to see the
+large print pages on the little round table,
+and her sister peering into the references
+and looking them out in her own little
+Bible, then diligently marking them.</p>
+
+<p>Her mother, too, asked what Jessie
+was about, and though she did not say<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>
+anything against her employment, their
+looking on, and the expression on Grace's
+face, worried Jessie so much that she
+could not think, and only put a slip of
+paper into her own book at each she
+found. The chapter she had chosen was
+the Parable of the Sower, on which she
+had once heard a sermon. She was amazed
+to find how many parallel passages
+there were, and how beautifully they explained
+one another when she made time
+for comparing them on Sunday morning.
+She saw herself beforehand expounding
+them to the children, and winning their
+hearts, as her friend in the hospital had
+described, and she was quite ready in her
+neat black silk and fur jacket, with a
+little blue velvet hat, when Amy Lee
+came to call for her, in her grey merino,
+black cloth coat, and little hat to match.</p>
+
+<p>They met Miss Manners at the school
+door, and were pleasantly greeted, and
+taken into the large cheerful room, all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>
+hung round with maps and pictures,
+where the classes were assembling, and
+one or two of the other teachers had
+come.</p>
+
+<p>The bell was heard ringing, and while
+the children trooped in, Miss Manners
+showed Jessie a chair with some books
+laid open upon it, the class register on the
+top, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry there has not been time to
+talk over your work this week; but I
+have laid out the books for you, and if
+you are in any difficulty come and ask
+me."</p>
+
+<p>By this time the children had come in
+and taken their places, and Jessie was
+pleased to see that her class was of children
+of eight or nine years old&mdash;not such
+little ones as Amy had threatened her
+with. Miss Manners went to the harmonium
+and gave out a Sunday morning
+hymn, which was very sweetly sung, and
+then she read prayers, everybody kneeling,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span>
+and making the responses, so that
+Jessie enjoyed it greatly, and felt quite
+refreshed by the prayer for a blessing on
+the teachers and the taught. Then Miss
+Manners told the eight little girls who
+stood in a row that Miss Hollis would
+teach them, and she hoped they would
+be very good and steady and obedient,
+and say their lessons perfectly.</p>
+
+<p>Jessie knew all but two who came
+from the other end of the parish, and
+were not customers of her mother&mdash;at
+least she knew what families they belonged
+to, and had only to learn their
+Christian names from her list.</p>
+
+<p>"Collect, please teacher," said the first
+girl, Susan Bray, very much in the voice
+in which she would have said "Candles,
+please miss," in the shop.</p>
+
+<p>The Prayer-book was uppermost, and
+Jessie found she had to hear the Collect
+for the day repeated by five perfectly, by
+two rather badly, and one broke down<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>
+altogether. The question-book lay open
+under it. Some of the questions were
+very easy, but of others Jessie was
+not sure that the children were right
+when they replied to some quite glibly,
+and she was not sure how to help them
+in others.</p>
+
+<p>Then followed the opening of books
+again. Jessie was longing to give out
+all she had to say about the Sower, and
+began bidding them turn to it in St.
+Matthew, but Susan Bray stopped her
+most decisively. "Oh! please teacher,
+we've done that ever so long ago. We
+always reads the Gospel for the day, and
+here's the question-book, and it's got
+answers." And she thrust it right under
+the nose of Jessie, who by this time did
+not quite love Miss Susan Bray. She
+had plainly been sharp enough to see
+when her teacher was at fault.</p>
+
+<p>The children read the Gospel for the
+day. It was Refreshing Sunday, so it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span>
+was not a difficult one; the children were
+ready with the answers till the application
+came, and then Jessie had again to
+help them, which she did by reading the
+printed answers and making them repeat
+them after her, word for word. While
+she was doing this with Mary Smithers,
+who certainly was dulness itself, at one
+end of the class, there was a whispering
+at the other, and she saw two children
+trying on each other's gloves, and she
+quickly put an end to that, and went on
+with another question and answer. The
+moment her eye was off Susan Bray and
+Lily Bell, however, they began comparing
+some gay cards. Jessie turned on them:
+"You are playing with those things.
+Give them to me."</p>
+
+<p>Lily Bell began to cry, and Susan
+pertly said, "It's our markers, teacher."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't care. I won't have you idle.
+Give them to me, this instant."</p>
+
+<p>Just then the church bell began to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span>
+ring, and there was a general moving;
+but Jessie would not be beaten, and
+caused the two cards to be given up to
+her. The girls both cried with all their
+might while she was marking the class
+down, and, as they no doubt intended,
+Miss Manners came to see what was the
+matter.</p>
+
+<p>"Please, ma'am, teacher has taken
+away our markers, and we shan't know
+where our Psalms is."</p>
+
+<p>"They were playing with them," said
+Jessie.</p>
+
+<p>"We wasn't. We was finding our
+Psalms," said Susan.</p>
+
+<p>"You should not have done so while
+Miss Hollis was teaching," said Miss
+Manners. "I hope, if she is good
+enough to give them back to you, that
+you will attend better in the afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>Jessie felt it all a little flat and disappointing,
+all the more so that Amy
+Lee joined her, and talked all the way<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>
+to church about the children, who had
+all passed through her hands when she
+was a pupil teacher, telling all their
+little tiresome ways. It seemed to rub
+off all the gloss, and to change her
+scheme of feeding the young lambs for
+the Great Shepherd's sake into a mere
+struggle with tiresome, fidgety children.</p>
+
+<p>Still her hopes and her spirits rose
+again at church. She had her expounding
+of the Sower on her mind, and hoped
+yet to deliver it when she went to afternoon
+school; but there proved to be the
+Catechism and a whole set of hymns to
+be said, and questions to be asked about
+them. These questions did not come
+very readily to such an unpractised
+tongue as hers, and she thought she
+could lead off into the discourse she had
+thought out over the Bible. But she
+had hardly gone through twenty words
+before she saw a squabble going on
+between Lily Bell and Mary Smithers,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>
+and she had no sooner separated them,
+and taken up the thread of her discourse
+about grace being sown and watered in
+our hearts, than Susan Bray popped up
+up with "Please, teacher, it's time to
+read to us&mdash;Its <i>Miss Angelina</i>," pointing
+to a little gay story-book.</p>
+
+<p>"You should not be rude, and interrupt,"
+said Jessie; whereupon Susan
+pouted, the two idlest began to play
+with each other's fingers, and, as soon
+as she paused to take breath, Lily Bell
+jumped up, and brought her the book
+open.</p>
+
+<p>She had to give up the point, and
+begin to read something that did not
+seem to her nearly so improving as her
+own discourse, as it was all about a doll
+left behind upon a heath; but the children
+listened to it eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>Was this all the good she was to do
+by sacrificing all her time on Sunday?
+Like Grace, she felt much inclined to give<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>
+it up, and all the more when Florence
+Cray came into the work-room the next
+morning, laughing and saying&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Well, the impudence of some folk!
+There was that there little Bray! I hear
+that she should say that Miss Hollis was
+put to teach her, and she warn't agoing
+to care for one as wasn't a lady."</p>
+
+<p>"I can make her mind me fast enough,"
+said Amy.</p>
+
+<p>"O, you are bred to be a teacher,"
+said Florence; "that doesn't count.
+Nobody else should trouble themselves
+with the tiresome little ungrateful things.
+I'm sure I wouldn't; but then I don't set
+up for goodness, nor want to be thought
+better than other folk."</p>
+
+<p>Jessie had known that something of
+this kind would be said, and was prepared
+for it; but the child's speech vexed her
+sorely. However, she said&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not going to be beat by a chit
+like that," and at that moment Miss<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>
+Lee came in, and that kind of chatter
+ceased.</p>
+
+<p>But Jessie's cheeks burned over her
+work, and she thought how foolish she
+had been to let her fancy for doing good,
+and trying to live up to the sermon, lead
+her where she was allowed to do nothing,
+but get herself teased and insulted, right
+and left.</p>
+
+<p>Should she give up? That would look
+so silly. Yes, but would it not serve
+Miss Manners right for giving her such
+stupid, unspiritual kind of teaching to
+do, and also serve the children right for
+their pertness and ingratitude?</p>
+
+<p>No, she could not give up in this way.
+She had begun, and she must go on, at
+least till she had some reason for giving
+up respectably and civilly&mdash;only she
+wished she had known how unlike it
+was to what she had expected before she
+had undertaken it!</p>
+
+<p>Then she was sensible of a certain odd,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span>
+uppish, self-asserting feeling within her.
+She used to have it in old times, but she
+had learnt to distrust it, and to know
+that it generally came when she was in
+a bad way.</p>
+
+<p>Was she thinking of pleasing herself,
+or of offering a little work to please God,
+and try to let the good seed turn to good
+fruit? Ah! but was it all a mistake?
+Was becoming a mark for Susan Bray to
+worry, doing any good at all?</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+
+<h3>TEACHER AMY.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">It</span> was a pleasant sight for Amy when
+poor little Edwin Smithers's pale face
+brightened up, as she opened his door.</p>
+
+<p>He was not like the rough little monkey
+she had known at the infant school, who
+had only seemed to want to learn as little,
+and to play as many tricks, as he could.
+In the hospital, the attention kind people
+had paid him had quickened up his understanding,
+and mended his manners.
+He had been petted and amused there,
+and the being left alone in the dull
+cottage was a sad trial to him. His
+mother had regular work, and so had
+his elder brother, but this kept them out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span>
+all day from eight till five, except that
+Mrs. Smithers kept Friday to do her own
+washing in. She was obliged to be away
+even at dinner time, as her work lay far
+from home, and she gave her next-door
+neighbour, Mrs. Rowe, a shilling a week
+to keep up the fire, look in on the sick
+boy, and give him his dinner.</p>
+
+<p>She was unlucky in her neighbour.
+Many women would have gladly given
+far more kind service for no pay at all,
+but they were too far off, and Mrs. Rowe
+made it a rule to "do nothing for nothing."</p>
+
+<p>His brother and sisters came in for a little
+while at twelve, their dinner time, but
+they wanted to go out to play, and had
+no notion of amusing him; indeed he
+was glad when they went away; Charlie
+clumped about so, and made such a noise,
+and little Jenny would take away his
+picture books or the toys that had been
+given him in the hospital.</p>
+
+<p>Then Polly would call her a naughty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>
+girl, and snatch them from her, and so
+his little wooden horse lost its head, and
+his railway train was uncoupled, and one
+wheel pulled off; and when old Mrs.
+Rowe found him crying, all she said was,
+"Dear! dear! don't ye fret now, don't
+ye!" and when that did not make him
+stop crying, she said he was a bad boy
+to make such a work about nothing.
+When she was a girl, nobody had frail
+trade like that, all painted and gaudy, to
+play with; a bit of an oyster-shell or a
+crab's claw was enow for them. He had
+got into such a caddle as never was too!</p>
+
+<p>So she began to shake up his couch,
+not in the least guessing how she was
+hurting and jarring his poor hip; and
+when he cried out and tried to drive her
+away, she thought it was all naughtiness,
+and declared that he was such a bad
+boy that she should go away and leave
+him to himself.</p>
+
+<p>The Lees dined at one, and work did<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>
+not begin till two; so Amy had a good
+half-hour to spend on the little boy
+before she was wanted again.</p>
+
+<p>"Going to see Ted, be ye?" said Mrs.
+Rowe, as she stood at her door, while
+Amy opened the wicket. "A proper
+fractious little to-&auml;d he be, upon my word
+an' honour! They do spile children in
+them hospitals, so as one can't do nothing
+with 'em."</p>
+
+<p>Amy looked at Mrs. Rowe, a very
+clean woman, but with a face and fists
+that looked as if they had been cut out
+of the toughest part of an old pollard
+ash, and a mouth that shut up like the
+snap of a gin. "Poor little fellow!" said
+Amy, and in she went.</p>
+
+<p>She was on her knees at once by the
+poor little boy, coaxing him and comforting
+him, and feeding him with some
+of the stew that Aunt Charlotte had kept
+warm for him. Then he told how Polly
+had taken away his horse and his train<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>
+and broken them. Amy looked about,
+and presently found the wheel. A little
+hooking together was all the repair the
+train wanted, and Edwin was soon happy
+with it; while, as to the horse, he was
+past Amy's present mending, but she
+would take it home, and next time father
+had out the glue-pot she would put on
+the head.</p>
+
+<p>Then Amy brought out a little book
+with the early Bible history in pictures.
+She showed Edwin one every day when
+she came, and told him about it whenever
+he did not know the story before, or
+helped him to enter a little more into
+it. She was surprised sometimes to find
+that he had carried notions away from
+school even when she had thought him
+only dull and giddy. Then he was
+pleased to say over the hymns he had
+learnt in the infant school, and to talk
+a little about it. Amy was quite surprised
+to find how his mind had grown<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>
+since he had been ill, and how pleased he
+was to be taught a little verse of prayer
+to say when he was in pain.</p>
+
+<p>She made him quite comfortable, filled
+up his mug of water, which the other
+children had upset, put some primroses in
+a cup where he could look at them, wrote
+a copy on his slate, and ruled some lines,
+caught the cat and put her before him,
+found the place in his easy story-book,
+and left him with a kiss, promising to
+come again to-morrow.</p>
+
+<p>It was very pleasant to be the bright
+spot in that poor little life; and Amy
+that afternoon stitched into little Miss
+Hilda's tucks, to the whirr of her machine,
+a whole pensive castle in the air about
+the dear little fellow who was not long
+for this world, and whose pillow was
+cheered and his soul trained for Paradise
+by his dear teacher, who came day by day
+to lead him in the path to Heaven. The
+tears came into her eyes at the thought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>
+of how beautiful and touching it would
+all be&mdash;how she would lay a wreath of
+white roses on his coffin, and&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"What are you winking about, Amy?
+Go nearer the window if you want more
+light," said Aunt Rose, in a brisk, business-like
+voice, not at all like her dreams.</p>
+
+<p>Amy was glad to move, feeling a little
+ashamed of being detected in crying beforehand
+about her own good works; and
+as she approached the window, she looked
+out over the lemon-plant and exclaimed&mdash;"There's
+Miss Manners!"</p>
+
+<p>Miss Manners was really coming into
+the shop, and her little Skye terrier was
+already running on into the work-room,
+for he was great friends with Amy; he
+sniffed about, sat up, and gave his paw,
+and let her show off his tricks while his
+mistress was talking to Aunt Charlotte.</p>
+
+<p>Then she came on, nodded kindly a
+little greeting to each as they all rose,
+and said that she had been thinking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span>
+that it would be a good thing for all the
+teachers to meet for half an hour before
+evensong on Fridays and look over their
+Sunday work together, so as to make
+it chime together. She said she found
+it was done at Ellerby, and was very
+helpful to all; and perhaps, when he
+had time, Mr. Somers would come in
+and help them. If they looked over the
+subjects beforehand, they could note the
+difficulties, and then she could refer to
+books, or ask Mr. Somers.</p>
+
+<p>Amy and Jessie both uttered some
+thanks, and Aunt Rose observed that it
+was very kind in Miss Dora, and that it
+would be very nice for the girls. Florence
+did not speak, but they saw her face and
+the gesture of her foot, and when Miss
+Lee walked out with the lady through
+the garden, Florence broke out&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Well, how fond some folks are of
+being put to school, to be sure!"</p>
+
+<p>"'Tisn't school," said Amy, "it is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>
+reading with Miss Manners in her
+drawing-room."</p>
+
+<p>"O yes; she makes you think yourselves
+ladies just to keep on grinding you
+at the teaching for ever; but I likes my
+fun when my work's done. I don't wonder
+at Amy Lee&mdash;she knows nothing
+better than sitting poked up and prim in
+Miss Manners's room; but for you, Jessie
+Hollis, who have seen a bit of the world,
+I should have thought you'd have more
+spirit than not even to be let to teach
+half a dozen dirty children without
+having your instructions."</p>
+
+<p>Here Miss Lee returned, and Florence
+applied herself to tacking in the lining
+again, while Jessie muttered to herself,
+"If I'm to teach them at all, I'd rather
+do it properly."</p>
+
+<p>Jessie really wished it. Perhaps the
+notion of seeing the inside of Miss
+Manners's drawing-room made it doubly
+pleasant, for Jessie had eyes that really<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span>
+could not help taking note of everything,
+though there was no harm in that when
+she kept them in due control. She had
+been in the dining-room before, and she
+hoped much that the class would be in
+the other room, though she was half
+ashamed of caring.</p>
+
+<p>Grace came home better satisfied on
+Tuesday, because her patterns had been
+much appreciated, though she still said
+the reading worrited her, and Naomi
+Norris gave herself airs.</p>
+
+<p>Jessie and Amy, however, went together
+on Friday, and found Margaret
+Roller, the pupil teacher, and Miss Pemberton,
+an elderly farmer's daughter,
+who always taught the little ones on
+Sunday, were ready there, and in the
+drawing-room.</p>
+
+<p>How pretty it was, with fresh delicate
+soft pink and white cretonne covers, and
+curtains worked with&mdash;was it really a
+series of old nursery tales? And coloured<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>
+tiles, with &AElig;sop's fables round the fireplace,
+pictures, books, and pretty things
+that all looked as if they had a history.
+Jessie's bright eyes took note of all in a
+flash, and then she tried to command
+them. Miss Manners gave them all their
+greeting, settled them all comfortably,
+and then began by reading to them a
+short paper in a little book upon the
+spirit of the whole Sunday, asking them
+in turn to look out and read the texts
+referred to, which Margaret and Amy did
+with a rapidity that astonished Jessie.</p>
+
+<p>Once she lost the thread in wondering
+what was looking out of a half-opened
+basket; but she caught herself up, and
+found that there was infinitely more connection
+and meaning in the passages
+appointed for the Sunday than she had
+ever guessed.</p>
+
+<p>Then Miss Manners asked whether they
+had any questions to ask; Margaret had
+one or two, which sounded very hard to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>
+Jessie, and she would never have thought
+of. It was the Fifth Sunday in Lent for
+which they were preparing, and they were
+respecting the unusually long and difficult
+Gospel for the day. Margaret wanted to
+know whether the words "By whom do
+your sons cast them out?" really meant
+that devils were actually cast out by the
+Jews. Miss Manners thought they were,
+and she looked out, and showed Margaret,
+a very curious account of the seal and
+sacred words of exorcism which were
+supposed to come from Solomon; but she
+advised the teachers not to dwell much
+on this branch of the subject, but to draw
+out most the portion about the strong
+man armed, and the warning against the
+return of Satan to the soul whence he
+had been once driven out.</p>
+
+<p>Then Jessie observed that she had not
+thought such things happened in these
+days, and Miss Manners had to explain to
+her how the possession then permitted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span>
+was here treated as an allegory to all
+times, of the evil once cast off returning
+again if not resolutely excluded by prayer
+and a strong purpose blessed by the grace
+of God.</p>
+
+<p>It soon became plain to Jessie that she
+was ignorant of much which the others
+knew quite well, and when the Church bell
+began to chime, and all rose to go, she
+obtained a moment in which to say,
+with something like a tear in her eye&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, Miss Manners, I ought not
+to have undertaken it. I see I am not
+fit to teach."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not think you can tell without
+a longer trial," was the answer, kindly
+given.</p>
+
+<p>"But I am so ignorant!" said Jessie.
+"There is so much in these things that I
+never thought of, and the others seem to
+know all about it."</p>
+
+<p>"It has been their regular Sunday
+school round for years," said Miss<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>
+Manners, "so it would be strange if they
+did not. But perhaps you will do all
+the better for coming to it fresh; and I
+am sure you are willing to take pains
+and prepare."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Jessie, slowly, "if&mdash;&mdash;You'll
+excuse me, Miss Manners, but&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Please say it, Jessie," said the lady;
+"or shall I say it for you? This asking
+idle children very simple questions does
+not seem to you to be spiritual enough to
+be doing much good?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, ma'am, if you will excuse me.
+I thought there was to be more expounding
+of Scripture."</p>
+
+<p>"We must do what we can <ins title="Transcriber's Note: this word was added to the text">to</ins> get the
+children to attend to," said Miss Manners.
+"Even if we could get them to
+sit still while we expounded, I am afraid
+they would not attend or take in what
+we said. Nothing is of use with such
+young things but keeping them on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span>
+alert with questions, and trying to keep
+up their attention by being alive with
+them ourselves. We must try to put
+into them the sense of God's love to
+them, of their own duty, and so on; but
+rather by the tone of our questions about
+the lessons they learn than by discoursing
+long to them. You can only fill a little
+narrow-mouthed pitcher with a few drops
+at a time put right in. If you pour
+a great stream over it, most will splash
+over, and very little go in. I am afraid
+the children were tiresome last Sunday.
+It is their nature always to try their
+strength with a new teacher; but if you
+are firm and gentle, and show them that
+you <i>will</i> be minded, and keep them interested,
+they will soon be manageable.
+Then, Jessie, there is good hope that you
+may be sowing good seed, though you
+and I may not always see the fruit here,
+and it is nearly sure to be long before we
+can even trace the green blade."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE TROUSSEAU.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Miss Manners's</span> words stayed with
+Jessie. She had plenty of sense and
+spirit, as well as a real wish to do
+right, and a yearning to spread the great
+Light round her. To be sure, the going
+to some mission in a dreadfully ignorant
+and wicked place would have seemed
+more like a good work than just taking
+a class who would be taught and cared
+for even without her help.</p>
+
+<p>But she could see that if she could not
+keep these tidy little trained children in
+order, she would not have much chance
+with the street Arabs she had read of.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She got on much better the next
+Sunday. She kept the children interested
+almost all the time, all except
+the two lowest, who were determined to
+chatter till she made one stand on each
+side of her, and then one of them, Emma
+Lott, chose to howl till Miss Manners
+came to see what was the matter; but
+she did not get much by that, for she
+was only told that she was very naughty
+not to mind Miss Hollis, and desired to
+stop crying directly, which she did; and
+then Miss Manners asked Miss Hollis to
+be so kind as not to take away her ticket,
+if she would try to behave well for the
+rest of the day.</p>
+
+<p>Once more Lily Bell was so kind as
+to inform "teacher" that Susan said
+"she didn't care, not for she." To which
+Jessie coolly answered that she hoped
+Susan would soon learn to care for being
+a good girl, taking care not to look the
+least mortified, so that the information<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span>
+fell very flat. After that she had no
+more trouble with sauciness from the
+children; she began to find that Susan
+was clever and bright, and that Kate
+May and Lucy Elwood were very nice
+little maidens, who seemed to care to be
+good. They brought her flowers, told
+her funny little bits of news about baby
+beginning to walk, and mother going to
+Ellerby, and she found the time spent
+at school a very pleasant part of her
+Sunday; while as to the hours of preparation
+with Miss Manners, she enjoyed
+them so much that it was quite a blank
+if that lady had any engagement to prevent
+her from receiving her little party
+of teachers.</p>
+
+<p>Jessie found herself learning much
+more than she taught. Her quick nature
+could not but look into everything thoroughly,
+and when she had been once
+shown how to throw all her mind as well
+as her soul into the study of the Bible<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>
+and Prayer-book, she found ever new
+delight in them. She began to find it
+helped her to pray with her understanding,
+as well as with her spirit at Church;
+to care more for her prayers at home, and
+to feel more on the times of the Holy
+Communion. She made her last year's
+hat serve again with a fresh tulle trimming,
+that she might buy herself a
+"Teacher's Bible," and not worry her
+mother and Grace any more by disturbing
+the big one, since they thought it honouring
+such a Bible to let it alone.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Hollis did read the Psalms and
+one Lesson every day. She said she had
+once promised Amy Lee, aunt to the
+present Amy, and she had hardly ever
+missed doing so.</p>
+
+<p>But Grace had not time. Just after
+Whitsuntide the daughter of a very rich
+farmer in the neighbourhood was engaged
+to be married, and wanted a
+quantity of fine work to be done for her,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span>
+making underlinen and embroidering
+marks to handkerchiefs.</p>
+
+<p>She came with her mother to offer the
+work to Miss Lee, giving six weeks for
+it, but it was more than Aunt Rose thought
+right to undertake in the time. She said
+she could not get it done without disappointing
+several persons, and that she
+was very sorry, but that she could only
+undertake two sets of the things in the
+time.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Robson, the mother, was vexed
+and half angry. She said she hated common
+shop-work, and ready-made things,
+and she had taken a fancy to what she
+had seen of Miss Lee's work. She even
+offered to increase the payment, but Rose
+Lee stood firm. She said there was no
+one at hand whom she could hire and
+entrust with such work, and that she
+could not feel it right to undertake it,
+as it would only lead to breaking her
+engagements.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"O, very well; I see you don't care
+to oblige me," said the lady, twirling off
+with her very tight skirts, and whisking
+up a train like a fish's tail. "No, I will
+not break the set. I am not accustomed
+to refusals."</p>
+
+<p>And off the two ladies drove, and Jessie
+told the story at home with a great deal
+of spirit.</p>
+
+<p>"Now that's just like Rose Lee," said
+Grace. "She won't make a bit of exertion
+for her own good!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Jessie, "you know we
+should have to work awfully hard if she
+took it in hand."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose she would have paid you
+for extra hours," said Grace sharply.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Rose said it was the way to
+ruin a girl's health to set her to do such
+a lot of work," said Jessie.</p>
+
+<p>"And quite right too," put in her
+mother. "I knew a girl who was apprenticed
+to a dressmaker, and sat up five<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>
+nights when they had two black jobs one
+after the other, and that girl's eyes never
+was the same again!"</p>
+
+<p>"Besides," added Jessie, "there's so
+much in hand."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it might not do to offend Mrs.
+or Miss Manners, but&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"O, it is not that! The children's
+things were sent home yesterday. I wish
+you could have seen them, they were
+loves; and Miss Manners has got a new
+dress from London. She let Miss Lee
+see it, and take the pattern of the trimming.
+No, but Mrs. Drew has sent her
+Swiss cambric to be made up for Miss
+Alice, and Miss Pemberton has a new
+carmelite to be finished, and there are
+some dresses for the maids at the hall,
+all promised by Midsummer day."</p>
+
+<p>"Pooh! Customers like that can wait."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see that it is a bit more right
+to disappoint them than any one else,"
+said Jessie sturdily.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Old Miss Pemberton, to be compared
+with a lady like that!" exclaimed Grace.</p>
+
+<p>"It doesn't make much odds as to right
+or wrong," said Jessie, "but I don't think
+Mrs. Robson is much of a lady, to judge
+by the way she gave her orders and
+flounced off in a huff."</p>
+
+<p>"A lady," said Mrs. Hollis, contemptuously,
+"I should think not. Why, her
+father kept the 'White Feathers' at
+Ellerby; and Robson, he rose up just by
+speculations, as they call them; but I've
+seen him a little greengrocer's errand-boy,
+with a face like a dirty potato."</p>
+
+<p>"They can pay, any way," said Grace.
+"Folks say Robson could buy out our
+squire, ay, and my lord himself, if he
+chose."</p>
+
+<p>"And I'm sure," said Jessie, "she and
+her daughter had clothes on that must
+cost forty or fifty pounds apiece. Such a
+fur cloak, lined with ermine; and the
+young lady's jacket was sealskin, trimmed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span>
+ever so deep with sable, and a hummingbird
+in her hat. They say little Miss
+Hilda saw her and cried for pity of the
+poor dear little bird."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'll tell you what," said Grace,
+"I'll set off this minute to Newcome
+Park, and see if I can't get the work, or
+at least some of it. You and I can do
+plain work as well any day as Rose Lee,
+Jessie."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Jessie, "but I have my
+time at Miss Lee's all the same."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, child; but there are the
+evenings, and I can sit to it while mother
+minds the shop."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't undertake more than you can
+manage, Grace," said Mrs. Hollis.</p>
+
+<p>"Trust me for that, mother. You can
+wash up, Jessie; I can get there before
+they go to dress for dinner. It is a
+capital thing! It will just make up for
+that bad debt of Long's, and help us to get
+in a real genteel stock of summer goods."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Grace managed the house, and her
+mother, who durst not say a word when
+she was set on a thing; and as to Jessie,
+her sister always treated her as a rather
+naughty, idle child.</p>
+
+<p>The girl had struggled hotly against
+this, but it had always ended in getting
+into such a temper, and saying such fierce
+and violent things, that she had been
+much grieved and ashamed of herself, and
+now felt it better to let Grace have her
+way than to get into a dispute which was
+sure to make her do wrong.</p>
+
+<p>But when Grace, as neat as a new pin,
+had tripped out of the house, Mrs. Hollis
+and Jessie looked at one another, as if
+they had a pretty severe task set them.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I think we could have managed
+without," said Mrs. Hollis, "but to be
+sure it is as well to be on the safe side;
+though I'd rather be without the money
+than be at all the trouble and hurry this
+work will be!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I am sure I had," said Jessie. "I
+wish I had said nothing about it. Grace
+can't bear to hear of anything going that
+she has not got."</p>
+
+<p>"Any way," said Mrs. Hollis, "you
+shall not be put upon, Jessie, after all
+your work at Miss Lee's. You shall not
+be made to sit at your needle all the evening.
+It is not good for your health, and
+so I shall tell Grace."</p>
+
+<p>Jessie thanked her mother, but had
+little hope that she would be able to hold
+out against one so determined as her
+sister. Neither mother nor daughter
+would have broken her heart if Grace's
+application had come too late, but no such
+thing! It had been dark about an hour
+when she was driven up to the door in a
+dog-cart, out of which huge rolls of linen
+were lifted, enough, as it seemed, to stock
+the shop. Grace shook hands with the
+smart groom who had driven her, thanked
+him, and came in in high spirits.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Robson had been most gracious!
+She said she had feared being obliged
+to put up with mere warehouse work, and
+that she could not bear; but country
+people were so lazy and disobliging. It
+was not what she was used to.</p>
+
+<p>Grace had been taken up into the young
+lady's own room, and oh! what she had
+to tell about tall cheval glasses, and ivory-backed
+brushes, and rose-coloured curtains,
+and marble-topped washhand-stands, and
+a bed and wardrobe of inlaid wood, with
+beautiful birds and flowers, and gold-topped
+bottles and boxes, and downy chairs!
+The description was enough to last a week,
+and indeed it did, for fresh details came
+out continually. It almost made Jessie
+jealous for Miss Manners. Once when
+she had been caught in a sudden shower
+and arrived wet through she had been
+taken up to Miss Manners's bed-room to
+take off her boots and put on slippers.</p>
+
+<p>And there was only a plain little iron<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span>
+bed, uncurtained, and the floor was bare
+except for rugs at the hearth and bed-side,
+and the furniture was nothing but
+white dimity. The chimney ornaments and
+the washhand-stand looked like those in a
+nursery&mdash;as indeed they well might, for
+they had belonged to Miss Dora nearly all
+her life; they all had stories belonging to
+them, were keepsakes from dear friends,
+and she would not have given one, no,
+not the shell cat with an ear off, nor the
+little picture made of coloured sand, for
+Miss Robson's finest gilded box, unless
+indeed that had come in the same way.</p>
+
+<p>And there were two prints on the walls,
+very grave and beautiful, which made
+one feel like being in Church, and so did
+the illuminated texts, though all were not
+equally well done, some being painted by
+her little nieces. Jessie had a feeling in
+her mind that there was something finer
+and nobler in not making one's own nest
+so very splendid and luxurious, but she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>
+knew Grace would laugh at the notion, so
+she said nothing of the difference, while
+her mother said, "Dear, dear!" and
+"Think of that!" at each new bit of
+magnificence she heard of.</p>
+
+<p>Grace had her patterns and materials,
+and the fineness of them, and beauty of
+the lace provided for the trimming, were
+quite delightful to look at.</p>
+
+<p>The payment was to be very handsome,
+and Grace felt secure of carrying through
+the work in time, with the help of her
+mother and sister.</p>
+
+<p>"You shall have your share, Jessie," she
+said. "See, here are some sweet French
+cambric handkerchiefs to be marked in
+embroidery. 'I have a sister who can
+embroider beautifully,' says I, and they
+just jumped at it. 'Nina' is the name
+to be worked in the corners."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I like embroidery," cried Jessie.
+"Thank you, Grace."</p>
+
+<p>"There's six dozen," said Grace,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span>
+"and you'll be able to do one a day.
+Four pence a letter. Why it will be
+quite a little fortune to you," said Grace,
+overpowered with her own generosity;
+and Jessie on her side thought of the
+many things 4<i>l.</i> 16<i>s.</i> would do for her.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+
+<h3>STITCH, STITCH, STITCH.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">It</span> must be confessed that Mrs. Hollis
+and Jessie had a hard time of it while
+those wedding clothes were being
+made!</p>
+
+<p>There was no time for anything,
+certainly not for cooking. They ate the
+cold Sunday joint as long as it lasted, and
+lived the rest of the week on bread and
+cheese, and Australian meat now and
+then.</p>
+
+<p>Grace got up before four every morning,
+and there was not much peace in
+bed for any one after that.</p>
+
+<p>Of course the shop had to be minded,
+and that Mrs. Hollis did, but she was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>
+expected to be at her needle at every
+spare moment; and for the needful cleaning
+and rougher work, Grace got a woman
+for a couple of hours who came cheap,
+because she did not bear a very good
+character. Mrs. Hollis did not much like
+having her about, but, as Grace said, one
+or other of them always had an eye upon
+her, and she was only there for a couple
+of hours in the morning.</p>
+
+<p>It was lucky kettles could boil themselves,
+or there might not even have
+been tea, and as to going to Mrs.
+Somers's working parties, Grace declared
+it to be impossible.</p>
+
+<p>"I've got something else to do," she
+said, decidedly. "The lady can't expect
+me to stand in my own light."</p>
+
+<p>And when she saw Jessie on Friday
+evening put away her work and fetch her
+hat and books, she cried out against such
+idling, and said it must be given up.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Jessie. "I can't give up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>
+my Church and my preparation with Miss
+Manners."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense! You see I've given up my
+working party."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; but I can't give up mine," said
+Jessie. "Oh, Grace, we thought so much
+about trying to do what we could."</p>
+
+<p>"And so I am!" said Grace. "No
+one can say I am not doing my duty to
+my family, and that's better than throwing
+away my time on a lot of beggarly
+folk that don't deserve nothing. And
+you ought to know better, Jessie."</p>
+
+<p>"I must have my lesson prepared,"
+said she in return.</p>
+
+<p>"As if you couldn't teach that there
+Bell girl without going to read with Miss
+Manners first! You'll never have those
+handkerchiefs done!"</p>
+
+<p>"I did two letters extra this morning,"
+said Jessie.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, that's very fine, but if you get
+one of your headaches&mdash;&mdash;"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The sound of that word alarmed Mrs.
+Hollis. Jessie had had a bad illness
+about a year ago, and the mother could
+not part with her anxiety about her.
+In she came, with the tea-cup she was
+washing in her hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Has Jessie got a headache?" she
+inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no, mother, thank you. Grace
+is only putting a case."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I am asking her what she thinks
+will become of the work if she is to go
+and take her pleasure whenever she likes.
+She talks of working extra; but supposing
+she had a headache, she'd be sorry
+she had thrown away her time."</p>
+
+<p>"Dear, dear," said Mrs. Hollis; "'tis
+the very way to make her have a headache
+to keep her poor nose to the grindstone.
+The doctor, he says to me,
+'She've had a shock, and she'll require
+care, and not to be overstrained.' And
+I tell you, Grace, I won't have Jessie put<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>
+upon, and kept muzzing over her needle
+like a blackamoor slave, without a taste
+of fresh air. So run away, Jessie, and
+get your walk."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, mother."</p>
+
+<p>And Jessie, who did not feel bound to
+obey her sister, ran lightly off, hoping
+poor mother would not be very fiercely
+talked at by Grace. She herself was clear
+that work undertaken for God's sake
+should not be dropped when one's own
+gain began to clash with it; while Grace,
+who had always been held up as the
+model, helpful good daughter, plainly
+thought, "working for one's family," and
+securing something extra, was such a
+reason as to make it a sort of duty to
+throw over all she had taken up under
+the spur of that sermon in the spring.
+Jessie had no headache, but she was
+weary, vexed, and teased, and</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"Stitch, stitch, stitch,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Seam and gusset and band,"</span><br />
+</div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class='unindent'>rang in her ears, so that she specially felt
+rested and soothed by the calm and quiet
+of Miss Manners's pretty room, with the
+open windows and the scent of flowers
+coming in from the garden.</div>
+
+<p>The subject was next Sunday's Gospel,
+about the Great Supper and the excuse-making
+guests. Miss Manners read out part
+of Archbishop Trench's comment on the
+Parable before she talked to the teachers
+about what they were to say to their
+classes; and Jessie felt deeply that to let
+herself be engrossed by this undertaking,
+so as to allow no time for her religious
+duties, would be only too like the guests
+who went "one to his farm, and another
+to his merchandise." She was advised to
+make it a lesson to her class against false
+or insufficient excuses, such as saying
+they were late at school because mother
+wanted them to take a message, when
+they had dawdled all the way instead of
+hastening to school. Miss Manners lent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span>
+the volume of Miss Edgeworth's <i>Rosamond</i>
+to Jessie, to read the chapter on Excuses
+to her girls, so as to bring home the lesson,
+though she was to carry it higher, and
+put them in mind that if they put their
+duties aside for these little things now,
+they would be learning to forget their
+Heavenly Master for earthly matters, and
+would never taste of His supper.</p>
+
+<p>It made Jessie doubly and trebly determined
+that she would not take a lie-a-bed
+on Sunday morning to make up for
+loss of rest before, and thus miss the early
+Celebration on her monthly Sunday. Indeed,
+she felt drawn to come oftener, if it
+would not be presuming.</p>
+
+<p>She came home from Church in the
+summer twilight, when even Grace could
+not work, and was standing a moment at
+the door before lighting the lamp.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, miss, I hope you have wasted
+enough daylight," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope it wasn't quite wasted," said<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>
+Jessie, cheerfully. "I shall work ever
+so much quicker for the rest I have
+had."</p>
+
+<p>And she was as good as her word, and
+spent an hour in her pleasant embroidery
+of the pretty white letters of the name
+which she really delighted in doing, only
+she would have liked a fresh pattern instead
+of making all the seventy-two Ninas
+exactly alike.</p>
+
+<p>She was at work before half-past six
+the next day, and had three more letters
+done before it was time to go to Miss
+Lee's, where it was a busy day of finishing
+work; and when at three o'clock the last
+stitch was put to the dress that had been
+made out of Mrs. Drew's cambric, Miss
+Lee asked Jessie to carry it home, suspecting
+that the walk would be good for
+her.</p>
+
+<p>It was rather hot, but Jessie did enjoy
+the lanes, with their flowery banks, and
+the sweet smells of the hay, and she felt<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>
+much brightened and refreshed. When
+she came near the house, she saw some
+one sitting in a basket-chair in the porch,
+and knew that it was Miss Needwood,
+a poor, sickly orphan relation of Mrs.
+Drew's, who was always trying situations
+as nursery governess, or reader, or the
+like, and leaving them because her health
+would not serve; and then she had no
+home to go to but Chalk-pit Farm. She
+was not so much above the Hollises as
+the farmer's own family, and was always
+friendly with them. She came to meet
+Jessie, shook hands with her, and explained
+that Mrs. Drew had been summoned
+to speak about some poultry, but
+would return in a moment if Miss Hollis
+would sit down.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you stopping here for long?"
+asked Jessie.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," said the poor girl,
+sadly; "I hoped I was settled in a
+nice situation; but my asthma was bad<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span>
+there, and the lady found it out, and
+it made her nervous, so here I am again.
+Mr. Drew, he is kind, and says I may
+make myself useful with teaching the
+children; but oh, dear! I don't know
+enough for that."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you had gone out for a
+nursery governess."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes"&mdash;the tears came in her
+eyes;&mdash;"but I'll never try again. The
+elder young ladies made game of my
+French, and said I didn't spell as well
+as the little nursery girl. And it was
+true, Miss Hollis. I tried being a sewing-maid
+last, though Mrs. Drew didn't want
+folk to know it; but, you see, I hadn't
+health for that. They are very good
+here, and will keep me; but I am nothing
+but a burthen. If I could but hear of
+something to do&mdash;if only to keep me in
+clothes. I can do fancy-work, if I could
+get any."</p>
+
+<p>"Can you embroider?" asked Jessie.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Miss Needwood took out her pocket-handkerchief,
+where her initials, H. N.,
+were beautifully worked. Jessie had
+admired her own work, but this was
+much better. It was just such an N as
+she wanted, and she exclaimed&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"If you would be so kind as to lend
+me one of those for a pattern, I should
+be so much obliged."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you embroider?" asked Miss
+Needwood. "I wish you could tell me
+if there is any shop at Ellerby or Carchester
+that would employ me; I should
+be so much happier."</p>
+
+<p>Here Mrs. Drew came back, and looked
+over the dress which was to be sent to
+her daughter at her boarding-school, and
+thanked Jessie, and gave her the money
+for Miss Lee.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Needwood had fetched the handkerchief,
+and Jessie took leave and walked
+home, thinking over what shops might
+possibly employ the poor girl. What a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>
+pity she had not those handkerchiefs to
+do, and why should she not do some of
+them?</p>
+
+<p>Oh, Grace would never consent. Besides,
+Jessie had spent her 4<i>l.</i> 16<i>s.</i> in
+fancy already on the Offertory, savings
+bank, a present for mother, a pair of
+spectacles for old Dame Wall, a pretty
+new dress and hat for herself. Oh no,
+she must work on; it was such pretty
+work, and Grace would scorn her so if
+she gave up any part of it.</p>
+
+<p>Jessie came home to find Mrs. Hollis
+in all the hard work and worry of a
+Saturday evening, alone in the shop, with
+people waiting and getting cross. She
+had to hasten behind the counter and
+help as fast as she could. It was well
+that the Lees had given her a cup of tea
+when she brought in the money, for there
+was no quiet for more than an hour, and
+then the fire was found to have gone
+out while Grace was putting in gathers.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span>
+Moreover, Jessie saw, with dismay, that
+the beefsteak-pie, which was to serve for
+the morrow, was not even made.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'll do that to-morrow morning,"
+said Grace.</p>
+
+<p>And when Jessie proceeded to tack in
+her clean collar and cuffs, Grace called
+out, raising her hot face from her work,
+that they might be pinned in on Sunday
+morning; it was only waste of time to
+do so now.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think that is using Sunday
+quite well," said Jessie.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I never heard there was any
+harm in sticking in a pin of a Sunday!
+Come, sit down, do, and don't keep
+fiddling about. You'll be behind with
+those handkerchiefs. Here, mother, you
+can finish this seam before dark."</p>
+
+<p>"The place is in such a caddle," said
+poor Mrs. Hollis, looking ruefully round
+at her kitchen, which certainly did not
+wear at all its usual Saturday evening's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>
+aspect. "That Jenny Simkins, she do
+so stabble in and out, she only wants
+some one to clean after her."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, well, I'll see to that," said Grace,
+"when it gets too dark for work. One
+must put up with a little for such a
+chance as this."</p>
+
+<p>Jessie felt that her poor mother was
+putting up with more than a little, as she
+saw her sit down with a sigh and try to
+thread her needle by the window. Jessie
+went across and did it for her, and put
+back the muslin blind so as to let in
+more light; then sat down to finish the
+"na" of her sixth Nina, rather wearily,
+and with an uncomfortable thought that
+Miss Needwood's satin-stitch looked better
+than her own.</p>
+
+<p>Little "n" was done before the twilight
+tidying, which did not amount to
+much, for Grace soon lighted the lamp;
+but Jessie, in putting up the shop shutters,
+made the arm, which had once been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>
+crushed, tremble so much that she could
+not work without pricking her finger,
+and Mrs. Hollis really could not see.
+So Grace let them both go to bed, and
+Jessie half waked to hear her bustling
+about, and coming up herself just after
+the clock struck twelve. She would not
+have set a stitch on any account after that!</p>
+
+<p>Jessie was up early enough to light the
+fire, and set out the breakfast things, and
+put on the kettle, while both her mother
+and Grace were still in bed. She had a
+peaceful, happy time then, but otherwise
+she had never known such an uncomfortable
+Sunday.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Hollis was down when she came
+back, but was fretting over the very large
+bit that had gone out of the cheese.
+Jessie thought they had eaten it for want
+of meat; her mother suspected Jenny
+Simkins. Then she had not been
+allowed time to copy out her accounts
+into the book, and there had been a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span>
+great puzzle between a three and a five
+on the slate last night, which seemed
+to have been worrying her all night in
+her dreams; and the uncleaned look of
+the house vexed her. She was tired and
+not like herself, and Jessie only left her
+for school and church on hearing Grace's
+step on the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>At school she could forget all about it in
+the interest of teaching, but the worry
+returned when her mother's place was
+empty at the beginning of the service;
+and when Mrs. Hollis did come posting
+in at the end of the <i>Venite</i>, she was so
+hot and panting that she had to sit
+down and fan herself with her pocket-handkerchief
+all through the Psalms, and
+Jessie even feared she might be going
+to faint.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh dear," Mrs. Hollis mourned, when
+they came out of church, "she had never
+been so upset before, but she had been
+so put about to get off, with none of her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span>
+things ready, and she was <i>that</i> tired and
+sleepy she had not heard a word of the
+sermon. Grace really had undertaken too
+much. The house was in such a mess
+there was no sitting down quiet and
+respectable, and there was threepence in
+the till that would not be accounted for,
+and she was sure that the cheese was
+going too fast." She fretted all the way
+home, and Jessie could not comfort her,
+by promising to look over the accounts
+the first thing on Monday.</p>
+
+<p>However, on coming home they found
+the whole house tidied, dinner laid, the
+pie made and just ready to come out of
+the Dutch oven, and the accounts balanced
+and written out fairly. Grace was
+just finishing the arraying herself in full
+Sunday trim outside, but how was it with
+the inner Sunday raiment of her heart?</p>
+
+<p>She did nothing but talk about "seam
+and gusset and band," and how fast she
+was getting on, and how good the linen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span>
+was, and what sort was the best, till
+Jessie thought she might almost as well
+have been sewing all day as with her
+thoughts running on nothing else.</p>
+
+<p>When Jessie went to afternoon school,
+both Mrs. Hollis and Grace were so tired
+that the one went to sleep in her chair,
+and the other on her bed; and thus
+Jessie found them on her return.</p>
+
+<p>Poor mother! how weary and worn
+her face looked after this week of worry.
+The sight of it settled Jessie's mind. She
+went up softly to take off her things, and
+as she was doing so, Grace awoke. Jessie
+went up to her and showed her Miss
+Needwood's cipher.</p>
+
+<p>"Bless me! whose is that? It is real
+genteel," said Grace.</p>
+
+<p>"It is Miss Needwood's at Chalk-pit
+Farm."</p>
+
+<p>"What! that poor helpless thing that
+never can keep a situation! Did you get
+it for a pattern, Jessie?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Jessie; "she lent it to
+me."</p>
+
+<p>"It is beautiful," said Grace, examining
+it minutely. "You ought to work
+like that, Jessie."</p>
+
+<p>"I would if I could," said Jessie, "and
+I mean to try; but, Grace, I shall only
+finish this first dozen. I shall send the
+other five dozen to Bessie Needwood.
+She is in great want of work, and will do
+them much better than I."</p>
+
+<p>"Well I never!" cried Grace. "I
+never thought you'd turn lazy, and give
+up what you had undertaken&mdash;when I
+had asked for the handkerchiefs on purpose
+for you, because I thought a little
+pocket money would come in convenient!"</p>
+
+<p>"So it would. It was very kind of
+you, Grace; but Miss Needwood will do
+them better than I."</p>
+
+<p>"Not than you if you chose to take
+the pains and trouble."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Jessie, "if I don't hurry<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>
+them too quick to try to do those finest
+stitches, I sha'n't have time to do them at
+all, in these after hours of mine."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that you should choose to confess
+yourself not able to do as well as a
+poor dozing thing like that! It's all
+laziness."</p>
+
+<p>"No, that it is not," said Jessie, rather
+hotly. "I thought if those were off my
+hands I could help you, and then mother
+need not have any of this work to do, or
+be so driven and put about."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't expect to be paid for any
+part of mother's work," said Grace, with
+some sharpness. "I've got my own use
+for that in the business."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I don't!" and Jessie went suddenly
+off in a little bit of temper for
+which she was sorry afterwards, wishing
+she had said that her real reason&mdash;besides
+the helping Miss Needwood&mdash;was the
+hope to save her mother from being
+over driven, and not to have another<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span>
+Sunday so cumbered with worldly
+matters.</p>
+
+<p>Grace came down to tea grumbling,
+and appealing to her mother about
+Jessie's laziness; and Mrs. Hollis, for
+whose sake the girl had resigned five-sixths
+of her hoped-for gain, was inclined
+to be vexed at any of the work
+going out of the family, or her Jessie
+allowing herself to be beaten.</p>
+
+<p>It was very vexatious, and Jessie was
+glad when Uncle Andrew dropped in to
+tea, and to change the current of their
+thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>She was to stay at home to guard the
+house while the others went to evensong,
+and this gave her the quiet opportunity
+of packing up five dozen handkerchiefs,
+and writing a note to send with them to
+Bessie Needwood the first thing in the
+morning, by any child who came early to
+the shop.</p>
+
+<p>Then she felt much more at ease, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span>
+was able to have a comfortable study of
+her next Sunday's Gospel and its references,
+in case she should be too busy on
+the week days; and so she was peaceful
+and refreshed, and able to enjoy a quiet
+little wander in the twilight garden with
+her hymn-book. This lasted till the
+others came home, brim full of reports
+they had picked up about the splendour
+of the coming wedding. The gentleman,
+Mr. Holdaway, was staying at Newcorn
+Park, and, what was more, he had sent
+his horses and grooms down to the
+Manners Arms, because the stables at the
+Chequers were not well kept.</p>
+
+<p>The head groom had actually been at
+Church, and looked quite the gentleman,
+though to be sure he did stare about
+wonderfully.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Hollis shook her head, and said
+no good came of that sort of folk.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+
+<h3>WANDERING EYES.</h3>
+
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">I assure</span> you he said he had never
+seen a place with more pretty young
+ladies in it."</p>
+
+<p>"Who?" said Jessie, coming suddenly
+into the light closet of the work-room,
+where Florence Cray was taking off
+her hat, and Amy Lee seemed to be
+helping her.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Mr. Wingfield, Mr. Holdaway's
+head groom, who has come over with
+another man and a boy, and three of the
+loveliest horses you ever did see."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, I heard," said Jessie; "and
+how he stared about at Church! He ought
+to be ashamed of himself."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh! that's what Grace says, of course,"
+said Florence; "and she's a regular old
+maid. She needn't fear that he'll stare
+at her."</p>
+
+<p>Wherewith both Florence and Amy
+giggled, and before Jessie's hot answer
+was out of her mouth, one of the aunts
+called out&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Girls, girls, what are you doing?
+No gossiping there."</p>
+
+<p>Florence came out looking cross, and
+observing in a marked manner that Miss
+Fuller, at Ellerby, always spoke of her
+young ladies.</p>
+
+<p>"I like using right names," said Aunt
+Rose in her decided voice.</p>
+
+<p>Florence was silenced for the time, but
+at the dinner hour she contrived to get
+Amy alone. Jessie was in haste to get
+home to see if there were an answer from
+Miss Needwood, and also to try to get
+enough sewing done to pacify Grace, and
+purchase a little leisure for her mother.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span>
+And Florence, instead of going home,
+stood with Amy, who had sauntered into
+the garden to refresh herself and gather
+some parsley.</p>
+
+<p>"I assure you, Amy, he was quite
+struck. He said yours was such a style
+that he would hardly believe me when I
+said you belonged to Mr. Lee, the baker.
+It was the refinement, he said."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense, Florence; don't," said
+Amy, blushing as crimson as the rose
+she tried to gather.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not talking nonsense; I never
+did see a poor man so smitten."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Florence, you shouldn't say
+such things; father and aunts would not
+like it. I shall go in."</p>
+
+<p>"Fathers and aunts are all alike; they
+never do like such things. But&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>However, Amy was safe indoors by
+this time, all in a glow, very much
+ashamed that such things should have
+been said to her, and yet not a little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span>
+fluttered and pleased. She had been
+most carefully brought up and watched
+over, and she had come to the age of
+sixteen without hearing more about herself
+than that a young lady, who once
+came into the school with Miss Agnes
+Manners, said something that sounded
+like lovely, and was speedily hushed up
+and silenced.</p>
+
+<p>All the other girls thought the young
+lady meant Henrietta Coles, who was
+tall, with bright dark eyes, red cheeks,
+and black hair, under a round comb; but
+Amy had always been sure that the
+speaker's eyes were upon her, though she
+had been ashamed of the belief, and
+indeed had nearly forgotten all about it,
+till it was stirred up by Florence's talk.</p>
+
+<p>She went up to her room to smooth
+her hair before dinner. Yes, it was very
+nice light-brown hair, with a golden shine;
+and her eyes were very clear and blue,
+and her skin very white, with a rosy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span>
+flush; and her nose was straight, and the
+shape was a pretty delicate one. Amy
+really did think Mr. Wingfield was right,
+and had better taste than the people who
+thought her a poor washy, peaky thing,
+as she had more than once heard herself
+called.</p>
+
+<p>She put her head on one side, smirked
+a little, half shut her eyes, and studied
+herself in different positions, till she heard
+one of her aunts on the stairs; and then,
+in a desperate fright lest she should be
+caught, she darted out so fast as to run
+against Aunt Charlotte coming up stairs
+with a basket of clean linen from the
+wash. There were three pairs of stockings
+rolled up on the top, and these tumbled
+out, and one pair went hop, hop, from
+step to step all the way down stairs, just
+as Father was coming in, and he caught
+it up and threw it like a ball straight up
+at his sister.</p>
+
+<p>The confusion drove the nonsense out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span>
+of Amy's head for the present. She ate
+her dinner, and then went off as usual
+for her visit to little Edwin Smithers,
+carrying him only a few strawberries, as
+she knew he always had soup from the
+Hall on a Monday.</p>
+
+<p>For Edwin had not died. He had
+rather grown better than worse, and if
+the truth must be told, Amy had begun
+to get a little tired of him. He was not
+a quick child, and in this hot weather he
+often failed to do the sums or learn the
+verses that Amy set him.</p>
+
+<p>To-day he was nursing a great piece
+of stick-liquorice with which he had
+painted a dirty spot on the central
+face in the picture of the number of the
+<i>Chatterbox</i> which she had lent him. She
+scolded him for it, and he turned sulky,
+and would not try to repeat his hymn,
+nor answer any questions, and looked at
+his book as if he had never seen one
+before.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Amy grew angry, told him he was a
+naughty boy, and she should not stay
+with him nor give him any strawberries;
+and off she went, carrying away the
+injured <i>Chatterbox</i>, and never bethinking
+herself that the hot day and the weariness
+of the dull untidy room might not
+be the cause of the naughty fit, and
+whether it would not have been kinder
+and better to try to soothe him out
+of it.</p>
+
+<p>But instead of this she paused to hear
+Mrs. Rowe declare he was a bad 'un,
+with a nasty sulky temper that no one
+could do nothing with, and just then she
+saw Florence Cray crossing the village
+green.</p>
+
+<p>"I've just been to get a little red
+pepper at Hollis's," she said, as she put
+her arm fondly into Amy's. "Mr. Wingfield
+do like something tasty for his
+breakfast, and ma is going to do him
+some devilled kidneys to-morrow morning.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>
+He is quite the gentleman in all his
+tastes, you see! I wanted Jessie to walk
+back with me, but they are all so terrible
+busy over that there wedding order, that
+she could not come till the last minute."</p>
+
+<p>"Working all through the dinner
+hour!" said Amy. "What a shame!"</p>
+
+<p>"So I say. But that Grace Hollis is a
+one! I wouldn't have her for my sister.
+Here, come in, Amy, I must just give
+mother the pepper."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I can't do that," said Amy,
+uneasily, for she knew her father would be
+displeased if she went into a public-house;
+though as Florence said, "Gracious! You
+needn't go near the bar. It's only the
+back door! As if I would ask you to
+do anything you ought not! But I
+suppose our house ain't good enough for
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! don't be angry, Florence dear,
+I'll come some day when I've got leave."</p>
+
+<p>"Leave indeed, at your age; but you're<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>
+a poor-spirited thing, Amy, to be so kept
+down by a couple of old aunts."</p>
+
+<p>Amy was flurried at the displeasure,
+and wanted to make it up. "Oh! don't
+be offended, Florence. Look here."</p>
+
+<p>"Strawberries! oh my! already!
+Thank you," and Florence had soon
+swallowed up poor little Edwin's strawberries.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait here one moment then," she
+said, "and I'll be back with you in an
+instant."</p>
+
+<p>Amy stood under her parasol, trying
+to make the most of the small shelter
+afforded by Mr. Cray's garden hedge, and
+recollecting rather uncomfortably something
+she had once been told about the
+loitering of the disobedient Prophet
+being what brought him into temptation.
+But, having promised to wait, she could
+not move away, though she had to stay
+longer than she liked, especially as the
+children were going by to afternoon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span>
+school, and some of her own class began
+to stare at her.</p>
+
+<p>However, at last Florence came out,
+quite excited. "Oh, Amy, if you'll only
+wait a minute, you'll see him come
+out."</p>
+
+<p>"I can't! I can't! Let us go," cried
+Amy, quite shocked and shy.</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense! Poor man, he need never
+see you. He is just going to take the
+horses up for his master to ride out with
+Miss Robson. Such sweet horses! Mr.
+Holdaway gave 120 guineas for his.
+Think of that, Amy! Here now, come
+round the corner of the hedge, and he'll
+never see you."</p>
+
+<p>So Amy followed and peeped, very shy
+and frightened, like a guilty thing, and
+she did see two horses, much more beautiful
+than she knew, one ridden by a
+common-looking groom, the other by a
+very smart, well set-up person, with a
+belt round his waist. That was all she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span>
+saw, for they were gone in a flash, and
+she was too uncomfortable to see much,
+or to do more than hurriedly answer
+Florence's exclamation&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Ain't he quite the gentleman? Bain't
+his horses real darlings?" before Jessie's
+voice was heard&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Why, whatever are you two doing
+here?"</p>
+
+<p>The two girls both giggled, and each
+pushed the other to make her tell, and
+Florence laughed out&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, 'twas Amy wanted to see Mr.
+Wingfield pass by."</p>
+
+<p>"No, 'twasn't. 'Twas you," said Amy.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see why you should get into
+a corner about it," said Jessie, rather
+gravely. "I've just met him straight
+upon the road, horses and all."</p>
+
+<p>"O yes, <i>you</i>!" said Florence.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, why not me?"</p>
+
+<p>"O, you know, you'll soon be an old
+maid like your sister."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Jessie had not grown so wise as not to
+be nettled at this silly impertinent speech,
+but she was much more vexed to see that
+Florence was teaching Amy her own
+follies&mdash;Amy, who had always seemed
+like a pure little innocent wild rose-bud
+in its modest green leaves. So she
+answered, rather shortly&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"If you mean that I don't want to be
+right down ridiculous, I hope I am an
+old maid."</p>
+
+<p>This seemed to be very funny, for
+Florence went off in fits of laughing,
+and kept shouldering Amy to make her
+see the joke, but Amy had by this time
+grown ashamed and frightened and only
+answered, "Don't."</p>
+
+<p>So the three girls went in together, and
+no one took any special notice of Amy's hot
+face and uncomfortable gestures. It was the
+first time since she had been a very little
+child that she had shrunk from her aunts'
+eyes, or feared that they should ask her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>
+questions; and the sense that she had
+been undeserving of the trust they placed
+in her made her very ill at ease, though
+the silly girl did not do the only thing
+that would have set her right again, and
+made her safer for the future.</p>
+
+<p>Jessie meanwhile had forgotten the
+little vexation. She had something to
+brighten her up in Miss Needwood's little
+note.</p>
+
+<p>It was written on pink paper, edged
+with blue, as if nothing could be too good
+for Jessie; and it said no words could tell
+how glad she was, and what a comfort
+it was to have this real work to do.
+"It is really like a ray of hope in the
+darkness," said poor Bessie, in her little
+thin weak writing, with a very hard steel
+pen.</p>
+
+<p>But that note warmed up Jessie's heart,
+although her finger was getting severely
+ploughed up with the stitching she had
+been doing to save her mother's eyes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"There was not to be an inch of machine
+work," Mrs. Robson had said, and
+the Hollises were people who fulfilled all
+they undertook.</p>
+
+<p>But Jessie's hour at home had helped
+and freshened her mother, who looked
+much less worn and worried than she
+had done the day before. Jessie felt she
+had done well to send away the handkerchiefs,
+and lessen the burthen Grace had
+taken upon the family.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>AMY'S VISITS.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Nobody</span> could say any great harm of
+Florence Cray, or she would not have
+been bound to Miss Lee.</p>
+
+<p>But she was one of those silly, vulgar-minded
+girls who think life is nothing
+without continually chattering either to
+young men or about them. She was in no
+hurry to be married, for then she knew she
+must give up all her lively pastime with
+the lads around her. Not that she frequented
+the bar, or had anything to do
+with the customers&mdash;her mother kept her
+carefully from that; but she had plenty
+of acquaintance, and to her mind nothing
+else was so amusing. She was not pretty,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span>
+and knew it well enough, but she was
+very good-natured, and free from jealousy,
+and next to diverting herself with some
+youth, she liked nothing so well as teasing
+other girls about them.</p>
+
+<p>She considered Amy Lee quite old
+enough and pretty enough to have a
+young man, and to begin to have some
+fun, and she thought all the care taken
+of the girl by her father and aunts only
+so much stupid old fidget and jealousy,
+which it was fun to baffle and elude.
+Thus she was a very dangerous companion
+for Amy, perhaps more so than a
+really worse person, who would have been
+more shocking and startling to Amy's
+sense of modesty and propriety. It was
+such a new sensation altogether to be
+always popping about and peeping to
+admire the handsome stranger and his
+fine horses, and then to whisk giggling
+out of the way, in terror lest they had
+been seen.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It was more amusing than sitting by a
+fretful boy, trying to make him read and
+say hymns, and though conscience was
+half awake, it was easily satisfied. And
+then there was the pleasure of being told
+that she was admired&mdash;though Amy
+would not have liked it as well if she had
+guessed that Florence used to amuse herself
+on the other hand by telling Mr.
+Wingfield how a certain young lady
+admired him, and teasing him by declaring
+that, "Oh no! she could not tell him
+who, she should be nameless. Did he like
+best fair or dark?"</p>
+
+<p>So time went on, and the needlework
+with it. Grace Hollis's whole brain
+seemed to be turning into thread and
+cotton, for she was able to think of nothing
+else except what she should do
+with the money, when she got it; but
+she did not scold Jessie, as she had been
+inclined to do at first, for giving up the
+handkerchiefs, for she had begun to find<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>
+that without her sister's help there would
+have been no chance of finishing, without
+overworking her mother, and neglecting
+the business of the shop.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, as it was, when the last week
+came there was so much still to be done
+that she was obliged to ask Miss Needwood
+to come and help, which she was
+very glad to do, when she had finished
+the handkerchiefs most delicately and
+beautifully.</p>
+
+<p>Jessie gave all the time she could. She
+was glad to have something to think
+about, for Miss Manners was from home,
+so there were no readings before the Sundays;
+and her sharp eyes could not help
+seeing that there was something underhand
+going on between Amy and Florence&mdash;where
+she did not know whether to
+interfere or not.</p>
+
+<p>She had seen Amy and Florence come
+hastily round the corner of the lane,
+which had a stile into a large shady<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span>
+path field at the back of Mrs. Smithers's
+cottage, and Mr. Wingfield hovering
+about. It did not look well&mdash;and indeed
+what she would have thought nothing of
+in such a girl as Florence was a very
+different thing in Amy. Then stories
+that she disliked were afloat about the
+man. He was said to be teaching the
+young men at the Manners Arms new
+gambling games, and to be putting them
+up to bet on race-horses; and once she
+heard a very unpleasant laugh about
+very good, closely-kept girls being as
+ready to carry on as other folk.</p>
+
+<p>Once when she asked Amy after little
+Edwin Smithers, the answer was rather
+cross. "Oh! just as usual. He is the
+most tiresome fractious child I ever saw!"</p>
+
+<p>"Children are often like that when
+they are going to be worse," said Jessie.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," returned Amy, "I've always
+heard that children are most fretty and
+fussy when they are getting better."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Then I hope he is better."</p>
+
+<p>"O dear yes, of course he is, or he
+would not be here now," said Amy,
+impatiently, and getting very red.</p>
+
+<p>"How does he get on with his
+reading?"</p>
+
+<p>"There never was such a one for questions
+as you, Jessie!" cried Amy, getting
+quite cross.</p>
+
+<p>And as Jessie knew curiosity to be her
+failing, and was really trying to break
+herself of it, she was silenced.</p>
+
+<p>No doubt Amy was angered because
+her conscience was very far from being
+easy, though she never failed to pop into
+the Smithers's cottage every day, sometimes
+to bring the little dainties her aunts
+provided, sometimes to say a few words
+and begin a lesson with Edwin; but her
+heart was not in it, the boy would seldom
+attend, and often turned away his face
+and said "No," or began to cry; whereupon
+Amy told him he was very naughty,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span>
+and marched off, excusing herself by the
+fact that the girl Polly was generally in
+the house, and seemed to be attending to
+him much better than she used to do.</p>
+
+<p>No wonder Amy was in a hurry, for
+Florence was waiting for her outside; and
+by and by not only Florence.</p>
+
+<p>It began one windy day when Amy's
+sunshade flew out of her hand. She ran
+after it, as it went dancing along on its
+spokes over the village green, jumping
+up just as she neared it, and whisking
+off just as if it had been alive, or like
+one of those gay butterflies and birds in
+allegories that lure the little pilgrims out
+of the narrow path. Alas! it was only
+too much like such a deluder.</p>
+
+<p>For some one came round the corner,
+caught the wild sunshade, and restored it
+to the owner. She was tittering and
+breathless, she blushed all over, and
+never raised her eyes while Mr. Wingfield
+hoped, in elegant language, that she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span>
+had not fatigued herself, and paid a
+flattering compliment to the lovely colour
+with which exercise had suffused her complexion.
+This made her giggle and blush
+all the more. She did not know whether
+she liked it or not, poor silly child!</p>
+
+<p>She often "wished he would not;" she
+was in a dreadful fright whenever it
+happened, and yet the day seemed flat
+and tiresome and not worth having when
+he had not joined her and Florence, and
+walked down the path below Hornbeam
+Wood, behind Mrs. Smithers's cottage,
+with them.</p>
+
+<p>He never said or did anything to
+startle her. He saw she was a modest,
+well-behaved girl, and he knew how to
+treat such a one. He talked chiefly
+about the preparations for the wedding,
+or made the two simple country girls
+stare by wonderful stories of the horses
+he had ridden and driven, or by descriptions
+of the parks and the theatre. Now<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span>
+and then he was complimentary, but
+Florence told Amy much more of his
+admiration than she ever heard herself.
+As to letting her father or aunts
+know of the acquaintance, Amy was
+half afraid, half ashamed. One day she
+heard a talk between her father and Mr.
+Nowell, the gardener at the Hall, who was
+vexed about an under gardener.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall have to speak to the Squire
+about him, I am afraid," said Mr. Nowell;
+"he don't do his work with half a heart,
+and instead of spending his evenings at
+the club, or at cricket&mdash;wholesome and
+hearty like&mdash;he is always down at Cray's."</p>
+
+<p>"I hear," said Mr. Lee, "the club was
+never so badly attended."</p>
+
+<p>"They say it is all along of that there
+smart groom, Wingfield, as they call him,
+who is all for gambling games, and
+putting up our young lads to betting
+tricks and the like."</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, ay," said Mr. Lee, "one of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span>
+them idle, good-for-nothing servants
+loafing about at a public will do more
+harm in a place than you can undo in
+a day."</p>
+
+<p>"That's true," added Aunt Rose; "I
+can't bear the sight of the fellow lounging
+about with his little stick, as if he was
+saying to all the place, 'Here I am; it's
+just improvement to you all to see how
+I switch my legs.'"</p>
+
+<p>"And he stares so!" added Aunt
+Charlotte. "Last time Amy and I met
+him on the road, I really thought he
+would have stared the poor child out of
+countenance. I had a great mind to have
+spoken to him, and told him to mind his
+manners."</p>
+
+<p>"You are too young and too good-looking
+to do that sort of thing, Charlotte,"
+said her brother, laughing. "May
+be 'twas your aunt he looked at, so you
+needn't go as red as a turkey-cock, Amy
+girl."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Me, indeed!" said Charlotte, in hot
+indignation. "I should hope I was <i>past</i>
+being stared at by a whipper-snapper
+monkey like that."</p>
+
+<p>The elders all laughed heartily, and
+Mr. Nowell said something about Miss
+Charlotte being a fine woman of her time
+of life, which made her still more angry,
+and set her brother and sister laughing
+the more.</p>
+
+<p>Amy squeezed out a weak little giggle,
+but she was both angered and frightened.
+She could never tell her aunts now.
+What would they say? The time of the
+wedding was drawing on; Mr. Wingfield
+would be going. Little flutters moved
+her breast. Would he say any more
+before he went, or did she wish it?
+Florence said he was dying for her.
+Florence thought he was a gentleman
+in disguise, like one she had read about
+in a novel; but Amy, though she liked
+to dream of something sweet and grand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span>
+years hence, did not want to be startled
+by love-making now, or to have the
+dreadful disturbance at home there would
+be if this were more than a summer acquaintance.
+How would the aunts look,
+when they found she had concealed all
+this&mdash;she who had never hidden anything
+from them before?</p>
+
+<p>And yet she took the stolen pleasure
+in trembling every day, and tried to
+believe Florence when she said there was
+no harm in it, that every one did so,
+and that young people must be young!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+
+<h3>AWKWARD MEETINGS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Well</span>, to be sure, who would have
+thought of such a treat! This is a
+pleasure indeed! Rose, Rose, whom do
+you think we have here?"</p>
+
+<p>"How natural it all do look to be sure.
+There, Ambrose, there's the very rose tree
+I have so often told you of."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, mother has described it all so
+well, I could have found my way blindfold."</p>
+
+<p>The speaker was a tall, fair-faced young
+man, looking, in Charlotte Lee's eyes, like
+one of the young gentlemen from the
+university, but with something grave and
+deep about his face, and by him stood
+his little mother in the neatest of black<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span>
+silk dresses, with something sweet and
+childlike about her face still, though there
+were some middle-aged lines in it. She
+had once been the Amy Lee of Langley.
+She had married a schoolmaster, Mr.
+Cuthbert, and this was their only son.
+He had distinguished himself in all his
+examinations, and at the same time had
+shown so deep an interest in missions to
+the heathen, and had done so much to
+make the boys of the school care for
+them, that when there was a question of
+choosing a lad as a missionary student,
+whose expenses would be paid by subscriptions
+of the clergy in the diocese,
+at the great college of St. Augustine's
+at Canterbury, the vicar of his parish
+had three years ago proposed Ambrose
+Cuthbert as the fittest youth he knew. He
+had just finished his terms at the college,
+and was on his way home before going
+out to Rupertsland, having met his mother
+at the house of his father's brother in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span>
+London. They had found out that an
+excursion train would enable them to run
+down to Langley and spend a few hours
+there; and Mrs. Cuthbert, who had always
+said her son must not leave England without
+having seen her old home, her brother
+and sisters, was delighted with the opportunity,
+and here they were, the brother and
+the three sisters all together, hardly knowing
+what they said in their eager joy.</p>
+
+<p>"And my little Amy, where is she?
+You have not seen your namesake, Amy,"
+said the father, who had come in bare
+armed and floury.</p>
+
+<p>"She is not come back yet from poor
+little Teddy's," said Aunt Rose. "The
+child goes to teach, and see to, a poor little
+sick lad in a cottage every day, Amy.
+We like her to do such things," she
+added, pleased that her sister should see
+that their child was likewise something
+superior in goodness. "Ah! is it you,
+Jessie? This is Clemmy Fielding's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>
+daughter, Amy. Did you see our Amy
+as you came along, Jessie?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will run back and call her," said
+Jessie, who had seen the top of Amy's
+sunshade over the hedge, and in good-natured
+sympathy wanted to spare all the
+shock of discovery.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no," said Miss Rose, "thank you
+all the same, Jessie, but if you would not
+mind sitting down to the machine, I
+would walk out that way with my sister,
+just while my brother is finishing his
+batch of bread, and you are getting ready
+a bit of something to eat, Charlotte. I
+know, Amy, you would like just to look
+round the hill, and see where the squire's
+new cottages lie. Wouldn't you?"</p>
+
+<p>Jessie saw there was no help for it.
+Mrs. Cuthbert was delighted to go and
+to show her son her old haunts; but first
+she spoke very kindly to Jessie, and
+inquired for her mother, saying she remembered
+her well; and on her side<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>
+Jessie recollected that her mother always
+said she owed more to Mrs. Cuthbert's
+kindness when she was a little girl than
+to any one else.</p>
+
+<p>So off set the two elder sisters and the
+pleasant looking young man together.
+Amy always was late, and Jessie felt one
+hope, that they might meet the two
+girls coming in together. Yet, as she
+whirred her machine, she reflected that
+after all it might be best for Amy in the
+end that all this folly and concealment
+should be put a stop to.</p>
+
+<p>Out they went, talking; Mrs. Cuthbert
+asking questions, and pointing everything
+out to her son, and Aunt Rose delighted
+to answer.</p>
+
+<p>"We do not hurry the maid," said
+Aunt Rose, as they drew near. "You see
+it is such a blessing to that poor little
+afflicted child to have her with him."</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps Rose Lee, who had had her
+dreams and fancies like other people, was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span>
+thinking of the tales where some one
+looks in at the window and sees the good
+young person bending over the sufferer's
+couch, and reading good books to him;
+but it was certainly not Amy whom she
+saw as the door stood open. There was
+the little boy on the old couch under the
+window, moaning a little, but it was his
+sister who was standing by him with a
+cup of something, coaxing him with
+"Now Teddy, do be a good boy, and
+drink it, do'ee now."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Polly," said Aunt Rose, "are
+you here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Please, Miss Lee," said Polly, in
+a high squeaky voice of self-defence,
+"Our Ted is so bad, I couldn't go to
+school, not this afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>"And where's Miss Amy? Not gone
+for the doctor?" asked Rose, seeing indeed
+that the poor child looked very ill.</p>
+
+<p>"No, miss," said Polly. "Teacher Amy
+don't come now for more than a minute."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Where is she then?" asked Rose, to
+whom the world seemed whirling round;
+while Ambrose Cuthbert stood at the
+door, and his mother was feeling the poor
+child's hands, and looking with dismay
+at the grease gathering on the half cold
+broth with which his sister had been
+trying to feed him.</p>
+
+<p>But Polly's answer was quite ready&mdash;"Down
+the mead along with that there
+Wingfield and Cray's gal."</p>
+
+<p>"Who?" asked Rose, severely, for the
+girl's tone had that sort of pert simplicity,
+or simple pertness, that children can put
+on when they know they are giving unpleasant
+information, but will not seem
+to understand it.</p>
+
+<p>"With Mr. Wingfield, the gentleman's
+groom up at the Arms," said she. "He
+be her young man."</p>
+
+<p>Ambrose Cuthbert turned his head
+outwards to hide a smile. Rose said
+hotly, "Hold your tongue, child! don't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span>
+be saucy! Come, Amy, here is some
+mistake."</p>
+
+<p>"Stay, Rose," said Mrs. Cuthbert, "the
+child is really very ill. Has he a mother?
+Something ought to be done."</p>
+
+<p>Rose did not feel as if she could care
+for the boy at such a moment, and just
+then old Mrs. Rowe, brought by the sound
+of voices, came in by the back door.</p>
+
+<p>"Ay! Rose Lee," she said. "If you
+wants to know where your fine niece is,
+just look here. I never knew no good
+come of bringing up young folks to be
+better than their neighbours, going about
+a visiting as if they was ladies."</p>
+
+<p>Rose had reached the back garden, and
+over the broken-down little gate she saw&mdash;in
+the path shaded by the coppice&mdash;three
+figures whom she knew only too
+well, sauntering towards the stile leading
+into the lane.</p>
+
+<p>She felt quite giddy, as she called out
+sharply, "Amy Lee!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There was a great start. The three stood
+still, and looked about as if to see where
+the voice came from. Rose, recollecting
+the old woman's malicious eyes, got over
+the stile and came towards them. They
+had seen her by this time; she perceived
+that they were whispering; then the man
+retreated, and Florence and Amy came
+towards her, Florence holding Amy's
+hand, and pushing to the front.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Lee," she said, "we weren't
+doing no harm. Only taking a walk
+before coming in."</p>
+
+<p>"Florence Cray," returned Miss Lee,
+"I don't want to have anything to say to
+you. If you have been teaching Amy to
+deceive her father and me, so much
+the worse. You need not come to work
+this afternoon. My sister, Mrs. Cuthbert,
+is come to see us, so I shall not
+require you. Come here, Amy."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll not be hard on her, Miss Lee,"
+entreated good-natured Florence, feeling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span>
+Amy's fingers cling to her. "I do assure
+you there's been nothing no one could
+except against. It's been all most
+prudent and proper all along."</p>
+
+<p>"I said I don't wish to hear nothing
+from you," said Rose. "If you call it
+prudent and proper to be walking with
+young men, when she is trusted to read
+to a sick child, I don't know what I shall
+hear next. Come here, Amy; come home
+with me."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, aunt," sobbed Amy, "I've
+been in every day to see him."</p>
+
+<p>"Come home now, Amy," said her
+aunt; "I can't talk to you now! No,
+don't cry&mdash;don't speak! I won't have
+you making yourself a show to the whole
+place any more than you have done
+already. That you should have deceived
+us so!" she sighed to herself. She was
+taking Amy in, not by the garden, but
+round the corner of the lane, to give a little
+more time for her to recover herself, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span>
+also to avoid facing Mrs. Rowe's eager
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Please don't tell father," once sighed
+Amy.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think I am going to be as
+deceitful as yourself?" was all the answer
+she got.</p>
+
+<p>Amy's was a meek nature, and she
+knew she had been doing very wrong, so
+she uttered no more entreaties; indeed,
+she was in such a trembling, choking
+state, that her aunt had to wait, and walk
+slowly, while the girl tried to control herself
+enough to appear respectably&mdash;in a
+little lurking hope that perhaps Aunt
+Rose would be better than her word, and
+at least not tell Aunt Amy, her godmother,
+or Cousin Ambrose. She, who
+had been always reckoned so good a girl,
+and had never been in disgrace before!
+That it should have happened at such a
+time!</p>
+
+<p>And when the garden gate was opened,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span>
+there was a further shock. More people
+were in the house! Miss Manners, who
+had come home the night before, had
+come to inquire for little Edwin, and
+there was a buzz of voices, as she and
+Mrs. Cuthbert had most joyfully greeted
+one another.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Manners was delighted to see the
+young missionary, and the only drawback
+was that poor little Edwin was evidently
+so much worse. He had been gradually
+growing worse and weaker for the last
+ten days or a fortnight, Polly and Mrs.
+Rowe said, and his mother had sad nights
+with him; but the parish doctor had said
+it was only feverishness caused by the
+heat, when he saw the boy last week, and
+did not seem to think it of consequence.
+The family depended on the mother's
+work, and in hay-making time she could
+not stay at home. Mr. Somers was
+gone from home, so was Miss Manners,
+and no one had thought much about the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span>
+poor child; but he had become so much
+worse in the course of the morning, that
+it was plain that his mother and the
+doctor must both be sent for without loss
+of time.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Manners came out into the garden
+with Mrs. Cuthbert, and as the aunt and
+niece came up, said she would find the
+messenger.</p>
+
+<p>"Had not you thought him so well,
+Amy?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, ma'am!" exclaimed Aunt Rose,
+always an outspoken person, "that's the
+worst trouble of all! Who would have
+thought this sly deceitful child could
+have made as if she was sitting all the
+time with that poor boy, while she was
+just walking all the time with that good-for-nothing
+groom up at the Arms. How
+I shall tell her poor father, I don't know.
+It will be enough to break his heart!"</p>
+
+<p>"It was all Florence Cray!" sobbed
+Amy.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Miss Manners, "of course
+her father must know about it; but since
+Amy the elder is only to be here three or
+four hours, don't you think it would be
+better not to spoil her visit for him?
+You can have it out in the evening, you
+know; but it would be a great pity to
+give him such a shock at once. Don't
+you think so, Amy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed I do, ma'am," said Mrs.
+Cuthbert; "I am afraid the poor girl
+may have been to blame, but it will not
+be the worse for her to wait a little
+while, and my brother would be so much
+taken up with the matter, that I am
+afraid my Ambrose would never know
+his uncle as I should like."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure it will all be spoilt to me,
+any way," said poor Aunt Rose, half
+choked.</p>
+
+<p>"But you will bear the burthen alone,
+for your brother's sake and Charlotte's,"
+said Miss Manners, cheerfully; "besides,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span>
+you have your own dear old Amy to help
+you to bear it, and that is like old times."</p>
+
+<p>This comforted Rose a good deal. Miss
+Dora&mdash;as she and her sister Amy still
+called her&mdash;said she would not say good-bye,
+she would look in before the Cuthberts
+went, and say how the child was.</p>
+
+<p>The younger Amy was glad at first
+of the respite, but altogether it was the
+most dreadful day she ever spent. There
+was her father in his Sunday best coming
+out to <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'neet'">meet</ins> them, wondering what had
+made them stay so long. Mrs. Cuthbert
+answered, to save Aunt Rose, that they
+had found the child much worse, and
+that Miss Manners had come in. This
+satisfied him, and they went in to the
+meal Aunt Charlotte had prepared&mdash;a
+very late luncheon, or early and solid
+tea, whichever it might be called&mdash;in
+the parlour, with the best china, and
+everything as nice as possible.</p>
+
+<p>Really Amy felt as if it would have been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span>
+less dreadful to have been locked up in
+her room, or sitting sewing with Jessie
+in the workroom, than sitting up in the
+parlour with the rest, and hearing her
+father show his pride in her, making her
+fetch her prize for the religious examination,
+and talking of her almost as if he
+wanted to compare her with Aunt Amy's
+missionary son.</p>
+
+<p>And then when Ambrose Cuthbert was
+questioned about his plans, and told in a
+very modest quiet way where he was to
+go, and the work he was to do under a
+missionary to the Red Indians, Amy saw
+more and more how foolish she had been.
+What was that conceited groom whose
+boast was of the horses he had ridden,
+and the bets laid on them, compared with
+this young man? Which was the gentleman
+of the two? And this was her own
+first cousin, and she had forfeited the
+respect and esteem which he might have
+carried out with him! He would only&mdash;in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span>
+those far countries&mdash;think of his
+cousin, Amy Lee, as a giddy, deceitful,
+hypocritical girl, who had carried on a
+flirtation under cover of a good work.</p>
+
+<p>Amy burnt to tell all the excuses she
+thought she had, and how she had been
+led on, and that it was not so bad as no
+doubt Aunt Rose thought; but she must
+keep all back. Only at last her father
+remarked that his darling was very
+silent&mdash;shy, he thought, with her grand
+scholarly cousin. He said he should
+like them to hear what a pretty voice
+she had, and told her to sing one of her
+hymns, such as "Abide with us;" but
+Amy could not do that. She put her face
+in her hands, choked, and began to cry.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" said Aunt Charlotte; "poor
+dear, it has been a great shock to her,
+the poor little boy being taken so much
+worse."</p>
+
+<p>It was a comfort to every one that
+at that moment Miss Manners came in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span>
+through the shop, asking for Jessie
+Hollis.</p>
+
+<p>"The poor little boy is very ill," she
+said. "The only thing that seems to
+soothe him is a bit of a verse that his
+sister Mary says her teacher taught
+her. That was you&mdash;is it not, Jessie?
+Mary can only say half, and we can't
+make it out; but she says, 'If teacher
+was but here.'"</p>
+
+<p>Of course Miss Lee was ready to spare
+Jessie for such a reason, and she folded up
+her work while Miss Manners had a little
+talk with Mrs. Cuthbert, on the mingled
+pain and sweetness of the giving up her
+only son to be one of those sent forth
+"to sow beside all waters."</p>
+
+<p>"I am so glad he should have seen
+you, ma'am, before he leaves us," said his
+mother, the tears rising in her quiet eyes.
+"I only wish he could have seen Miss
+Edith&mdash;Mrs. Howard; for indeed, ma'am,
+I always feel that whatever good my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>
+children have learnt at home, was owing
+to the way I was brought up and the
+way Miss Edith used to talk to us."</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing will make my sister so happy
+as to hear it, Amy," said Miss Manners.
+"Somehow it seems to chime in with
+what I had ventured to bring as a little
+remembrance of your old home for your
+son. I had prepared it to send the St.
+Augustine's scholar, before I knew I
+should see him."</p>
+
+<p>She gave him a beautiful little <i>Christian
+Year</i> and <i>Lyra Innocentium</i> in a case
+together, and as the book-marker was the
+illuminated text&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"In the morning sow thy seed,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">And in the evening withhold not thine hand,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">For thou knowest not which shall prosper."</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>Ambrose Cuthbert thanked the lady in
+a very nice way, telling her that he should
+value her gift much, and that he hoped to
+make the poems his companions and often
+his guides in his work.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>So with a warm pressure of the hands
+of both mother and son, Miss Manners
+walked away with Jessie.</p>
+
+<p>"I think," she presently said, "some
+of your bread on the waters is coming
+back to you, Jessie. They say that little
+Mary Smithers has been such a comfort
+to her little brother, by repeating to him
+what she learns on Sundays, and that she
+has been so much more good and attentive
+to him of late."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure, ma'am," said Jessie, "I
+never thought Mary Smithers seemed to
+understand anything."</p>
+
+<p>"We can never judge where the seed
+we sow will prosper," said Miss Dora,
+thinking within herself of the different
+results with Amy and Jessie.</p>
+
+<p>The little boy had been carried up to
+the bedroom. Old Mrs. Rowe was there,
+and his mother, who was trying to help
+him to lie more easily, while he moved
+feebly, but restlessly, and still looked at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span>
+little Polly, who was repeating over and
+over some verse in which "Shepherd"
+was the only word that Miss Manners,
+well as she knew the children's tones,
+could make out. Jessie, however, knew
+it directly, and repeated&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"Gracious Saviour, gentle Shepherd,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Little ones are dear to Thee,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Gathered in Thine Arms and carried,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">In Thy Bosom may we be</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Sweetly, fondly, gently tended,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">From all want and danger free."</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='unindent'>She could say the whole hymn, but the
+child grew restless as soon as she had
+passed beyond the first verse. She returned
+to it, once, twice, and then Polly
+got back what she had partly forgotten
+and went on with it, which was evidently
+what quieted the boy best. He seemed
+too far gone to attend to anything else;
+the sense of other words did not reach
+his ears, but these evidently gave him
+pleasure. The doctor had said he was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span>
+dying, and the women thought he would
+sleep himself away. There seemed no
+more to be done. Polly had her verse
+to say to him, and no help seemed
+needed; so Miss Manners and Jessie
+went down the stairs again, and out
+into the garden, Jessie shedding many
+tears, but very far from sad ones. When
+she could speak, she said that the young
+woman in the hospital to whom she owed
+so much knew the hymn, and had so
+often repeated it, that Jessie had learnt
+it. She had used the first verse one
+Sunday when teaching the children about
+the Good Shepherd, and, having a little
+more time than usual, had tried to teach
+it to them&mdash;little thinking how she
+should thus meet it&mdash;but using it because
+she had grown fond of it for the
+sake of her friend, and of the new and
+higher feelings that were linked with the
+first learning of it.</div>
+
+<p>There was a great peace and thankfulness<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span>
+in her heart at having thus tasted
+a sort of first-fruits of her little attempt
+at sowing. It was soothing a death-bed!
+Might not she well rejoice that she had
+persevered, in spite of the temptation of
+gain, in not letting her head and heart
+be carried away with the fever of work,
+but giving the best part of herself to the
+task she had undertaken?</p>
+
+<p>Not that Jessie saw or thought that
+this had been the case. Yet if she had
+let herself be swept away with Grace's
+vehement desire to engross all the needlework,
+she must have given up her preparation;
+she would have been wearied,
+hurried, and very likely fretful and impatient.
+At any rate, there would not
+have been that kindness and earnestness
+which leads others to be good far more
+than the actual words of teaching.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE RECKONING.</h3>
+
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">It</span> is a right punishment for our
+sinful pride in her," said Aunt Rose, as
+she had a few last words alone with her
+elder sister.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Rose," said Mrs. Cuthbert, "I
+would not be so very hard on the poor
+child. I've been watching her, and I
+think, though no doubt she has done
+very wrong, it was in a childish sort of
+way, and that you won't find there's been
+any real love-making or nonsense of that
+sort."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure, now I find the child could
+deceive us so, and act such a part, there's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>
+nothing I could not believe," said poor
+Aunt Rose.</p>
+
+<p>"That is sad enough, but I think you'll
+find it the worst, and that she was led
+into it by others."</p>
+
+<p>"That Florence Cray!" exclaimed
+Rose; "and what to do about her?
+How hinder her from spoiling our child,
+when she's bound apprentice to me? I
+wish I'd never listened to her father!"</p>
+
+<p>Here came Amy herself, sent up to say
+that the trap was ready, and her aunt
+must not be late for the train. She felt
+as if the last protection was gone when
+she saw her aunt and cousin driven away
+in the conveyance they had hired at
+Ellerby.</p>
+
+<p>Girls bred up like Florence Cray would
+have thought it all a great fuss about
+nothing. First and last Florence had seen
+nothing but fun in Amy's cheating her
+strait-laced aunts and getting a little
+diversion, while they wanted to shut her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span>
+up with a cross child; but Amy had been
+bred up to a very different way of looking
+at things, and the whole afternoon had
+only been setting more fully before her
+how she had fallen from what she had
+imagined of herself last Lent!</p>
+
+<p>After all, the delay had made it better
+for her. Aunt Rose did not tell the
+story quite so hotly and violently as it
+would have come out in the first shock
+of wrath, but it was dreadful enough to
+hear her father say&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Amy, child, what is this? I never
+thought you would go for to do such a
+thing."</p>
+
+<p>"You that we had trusted from a
+baby," added Aunt Rose.</p>
+
+<p>Aunt Charlotte said nothing, but her
+looks were the worst of all to bear, they
+were so gentle and so sorrowful. And
+when Amy had sobbed out her story they
+told her that she had been so sly that they
+did not know how to believe her word.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, father! you may believe me. I
+never told a story&mdash;no, I never did!"</p>
+
+<p>"And yet you could make as if you
+were going day by day to sit with that
+poor little chap, only that you might
+be tramping about the lanes with that
+there scamp!"</p>
+
+<p>It was what he took as the hypocrisy
+of the thing that chiefly wounded Mr.
+Lee, and when Amy declared she had
+always gone into the cottage and spoken
+to the boy, she was told, "Much she
+could have attended to him, since she had
+never seen that the poor child was dying."</p>
+
+<p>The fact was that Florence had hurried
+her a good deal, because Mr. Wingfield
+was to show them the rosettes the horses
+were to wear on the wedding-day.</p>
+
+<p>After all, Amy had to go up to her
+room only half believed and unforgiven.
+Her father had a great mind to have gone
+to have had it out with Florence Cray
+that night, but as some holiday people<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span>
+were there, he doubted whether he could
+see her alone, and waited till the morning.
+Then he called her into the parlour
+and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Florence Cray, what have you been
+doing with my girl?"</p>
+
+<p>"No harm, Mr. Lee," said Florence,
+frightened, but therefore pert, and resolved
+to stand up for her friend. "You
+may trust me for that! I know what is
+proper."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Lee made an odd sort of noise,
+and said: "You do, eh! Proper to
+deceive her friends&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! now, Mr. Lee," said Florence,
+looking up in the droll, saucy way that
+served her instead of beauty, "it was
+only two old aunts. One always reckons
+it fair play by an old aunt."</p>
+
+<p>"Have done with nonsense like that,"
+said Mr. Lee. "Now, Florence Cray,
+mine is a girl with no mother. My
+sisters, and I have done our best to keep<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span>
+her a good, innocent girl, and we can't
+but feel it a hard thing that you should
+come leading her to keep company, without
+our knowledge, with a fellow that
+you must know is not such as we would
+approve."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure I meant no harm," said
+Florence, beginning to cry; "I only
+thought it was dull for her, and took her
+for a walk. And you needn't be afraid,
+Mr. Lee, I never left them alone not one
+minute, nor he never said one word; nor
+did more than just shake hands. You
+may trust me, Mr. Lee."</p>
+
+<p>On the whole the Lees were satisfied
+that the mischief had not gone as far as
+such imprudence might have led. Mr.
+Wingfield would be gone in a few days,
+for the wedding was coming on, and
+Amy was certainly not in love with him.
+When she compared him with Ambrose
+Cuthbert, she felt sick of having been
+flattered for a moment by his attentions,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span>
+and looked on the whole with the bitterest
+shame, as having led her away from all
+her good resolutions, and made her thus
+deceive and disobey her father and aunts.
+And when the knell rang for poor little
+Edwin Smithers she cried more than ever,
+feeling almost guilty of his death.</p>
+
+<p>She never wished for a moment to
+accept the invitation for which she had
+once been so eager, to see Miss Robson's
+wedding clothes and wedding presents.
+Grace Hollis went and took Jessie, and
+Florence Cray went too.</p>
+
+<p>These were a sight! Such gilt clocks!
+Such extraordinary contrivances for ink-stands,
+toilette apparatus, dinner services,
+and every service that could be thought
+of! Such girdles, chatelaines, rings and
+bracelets! Such silks and satins! such
+garments for morning, noon, and night,
+and even afternoon tea! And oh! such
+dressing-gowns!</p>
+
+<p>They sent Florence Cray home thinking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span>
+over all the novels she had ever seen,
+where a girl at an inn married a rich
+man, and also thinking how to alter her
+best hat.</p>
+
+<p>They sent Grace Hollis home deep
+in plans how to get another order for
+plain work.</p>
+
+<p>And they sent home, Jessie very happy
+indeed, for a lady's-maid had asked
+whether a dozen more handkerchiefs could
+be marked with "Maude" in the same
+style as the Nina.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Needwood was really getting
+quite prosperous.</p>
+
+<p>The next day, almost every one, who
+could, went to see as much as possible
+of the wedding; so Aunt Rose had not
+yet to endure the presence of Florence,
+and to keep watch that she did not
+chatter to Amy, who was drooping and
+shame-stricken enough.</p>
+
+<p>That morning came a letter from
+Mrs. Cuthbert. She said she should be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span>
+lonesome without Ambrose; and would
+her brother lend her his Amy for a few
+weeks, when she would do her best for
+the child, and not let her forget her
+needlework? This made things much
+easier to all; but Amy knew it was
+a very different going from home from
+what it might have been.</p>
+
+<p>Before she came back, Florence Cray
+had found what she called "working at
+Old Lee's" so dull, that she had teased
+her parents into requesting the return
+of part of her premium, and binding her
+to the chief milliner in Ellerby.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
+
+<h3>WHICH SHALL PROSPER?</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Somers</span> had come home from his
+six weeks' holiday, and was talking over
+the village news with Miss Manners.</p>
+
+<p>She told him of little Edwin Smithers's
+death, of the summons to Jessie Hollis,
+and of the visit of Mrs. Cuthbert.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course it is wrong to judge," she
+said, "but do you remember that Lenten
+sermon, and the impression I told you
+it made?"</p>
+
+<p>"I remember well. It was on the
+seed, and on bringing forth fruit."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, when we had the Parable of
+the Sower the other day, I could not
+help thinking how it had worked out.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span>
+There were some, like that Cray girl,
+who never seemed to take it in at all,
+but left it as something outside of them.
+Then three distinctly were moved to
+undertake something, the two Hollises
+and Amy Lee. Well, Grace dropped her
+missionary needlework as soon as that
+wedding order come in her way&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be hard on her, Dora."</p>
+
+<p>"No; but I'm afraid I can't help
+seeing that she does not seem to keep
+up her Sunday ways as she used. Then
+there's a sharp, worn, fretted way. I
+am very much afraid she is getting
+choked with the thorns."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know Miss Hollis well," he
+said, thoughtfully, "but I am afraid she
+does not look much beyond her shop."</p>
+
+<p>"And my poor little Amy Lee responding
+so readily&mdash;seeming all that
+could be wished, and then showing herself
+so little able to stand temptation
+from that silly girl."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I hope there was no more than
+silliness."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think there was; but still,
+after all the care Rose and Charlotte
+have taken to bring up that girl really
+refined, it was very disappointing to find
+her ready to be led away in an instant
+by foolish, vulgar admiration; above all,
+when it led her to neglect the good work
+she was supposed to be doing, it showed
+such shallowness."</p>
+
+<p>"It is a comfort that often trials, and
+even falls, do deepen the soil, so that
+the roots may have a better hold another
+time," said Mr. Somers. "I think there
+is good hope that so it will be with poor
+little Amy. And I think you have some
+good soil to tell me of."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed I have. I am sure Jessie
+Hollis has shown herself good soil, and
+her work upon that very unpromising
+Mary Smithers showed itself remarkably.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span>
+But that was not all I was thinking of.
+It seems to me that we have had a
+glimpse of what the hundredfold produce
+may be. Think of my dear sister Edith,
+working away at her class when there
+was much less help than now, and see
+what some of them have grown up,
+especially Amy Cuthbert. I know she
+had a good home, and other helps; but
+still I heard what she said of Edith's
+teaching and training. It has helped
+her to make that young Ambrose Cuthbert
+what he is,&mdash;and what may not be
+his harvest!"</p>
+
+<p>"As though a man should cast seed
+into the field," said Mr. Somers, thoughtfully.
+"First the blade, then the ear,
+after that the full corn in the ear."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! I am leaping on too fast. We
+only see a little of the first-fruits," said
+Miss Manners, "and take it for an
+earnest of the rest." And then she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span>
+repeated Bishop Heber's hymn, which
+she had often taught the children:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"O God, by Whom the seed is given,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">By Whom the harvest blest,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Whose Word, like manna showers from heaven,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Is planted in our breast.</span><br />
+<br />
+"Preserve it from the passing feet,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">From plunderers of the air,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">The sultry sun's intenser heat,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And weeds of worldly care.</span><br />
+<br />
+"Though buried deep or thinly strewn,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Do Thou Thy grace supply:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">The hope in earthly furrows strewn</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Shall ripen in the sky."</span><br />
+</div>
+
+
+<div class='center'><br /><br />THE END.</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class='copyright'>
+LONDON:<br />
+
+<span class="smcap">R. Clay, Sons, and Taylor</span>,<br />
+
+BREAD STREET HILL.<br />
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
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+
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+
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+Post 8vo, cloth, 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i>; morocco extra, bevelled boards, 6<i>s.</i>; calf
+extra, limp, 5<i>s.</i> Cheaper Edition, limp cloth, lettered, 1<i>s.</i>; or
+Twelve for 10<i>s.</i></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>FRIARSWOOD POST-OFFICE. By <span class="smcap">Charlotte M.
+Yonge</span>. Eighth Edition. With Frontispiece. Demy 18mo,
+cloth. 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>JEANNIE GORDON; <span class="smcap">or</span>, "BLESSED ARE THEY
+THAT THIRST." By the Author of "Joined to an Idol," &amp;c.
+18mo, cloth. With Frontispiece. 1<i>s.</i></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>JOINED TO AN IDOL. By G. S. M., Author of
+"Winnie's Difficulties." Frontispiece and Vignette. Crown 8vo,
+cloth extra, bevelled. 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>LADDIE. By the Author of "Miss Toosey's Mission."
+18mo, cloth. 1<i>s.</i></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>LANGLEY SCHOOL. By <span class="smcap">Charlotte M. Yonge</span>.
+Fourth Edition. Demy 18mo, cloth. 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>LEONARD THE LION HEART. By <span class="smcap">Charlotte
+M. Yonge</span>. Tenth Edition. 18mo, sewed. 6<i>d.</i></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>MICHAEL, THE CHORISTER. 18mo, sewed, 6<i>d.</i>;
+18mo, cloth, 1<i>s.</i> Eleventh Edition.</div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>MILES HARLING. By <span class="smcap">Alice Weber</span>. Two Vols.
+Crown 8vo, cloth. &pound;1 1<i>s.</i></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>MISS TOOSEY'S MISSION. By the Author of
+"Laddie." Seventh Thousand. With Frontispiece. 18mo, cloth. 1<i>s.</i></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>MISTRESS OF COON HALL. By <span class="smcap">Margaret R.
+Cartmell</span>, Author of the "Viking." Crown 8vo, cloth. 5<i>s.</i></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>NEW GROUND. By <span class="smcap">Charlotte M. Yonge</span>. With
+Frontispiece. Fcap. 8vo, cloth. Second Edition. 3<i>s.</i></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>NOTE-BOOK OF AN ELDERLY LADY. By
+<span class="smcap">Elizabeth M. Sewell</span>. Crown 8vo, cloth. 6<i>s.</i></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>OTTER (THE), AND OTHER STORIES OF
+ANIMALS AND BIRDS. By the Author of "Friends in Fur and
+Feathers." With Six Original Illustrations by <span class="smcap">Harrison Weir</span>.
+8vo. Handsomely bound in cloth, gilt. 5<i>s.</i></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>PALACE OF FUN: A STORY FOR CHILDREN.
+By <span class="smcap">C. Rickards</span>. 18mo, cloth. With Frontispiece. 1<i>s.</i></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>PIGEON PIE. By <span class="smcap">Charlotte M. Yonge</span>. Sixth
+Edition. With Frontispiece. Demy 18mo, cloth, 1<i>s.</i></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>PLOUGHING AND SOWING; <span class="smcap">or</span>, THE ANNALS
+OF AN EVENING SCHOOL IN A YORKSHIRE VILLAGE,
+AND THE WORK THAT GREW OUT OF IT. By a Clergyman's
+Daughter. Sixth Edition. Fcap. 8vo, cloth. 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>QUESTIONS ON THE PSALMS. By <span class="smcap">Charlotte
+M. Yonge</span>. Demy 18mo, sewed. 10<i>d.</i> Uniform with "Questions
+on the Catechism," "Collects," &amp;c. &amp;c.</div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>RAILROAD CHILDREN. By <span class="smcap">Charlotte M. Yonge</span>.
+Eleventh Edition. 6<i>d.</i></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>RIGHT FEAR AND WRONG FEAR&mdash;"IT LOOKS
+SO!"&mdash;GOSSIP. By the Author of "Sunshine in Sickness."
+18mo, cloth. 1<i>s.</i></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>LADS AND LASSES OF LANGLEY. <span class="smcap">A Story
+Book for Children.</span> By <span class="smcap">Charlotte M. Yonge</span>. 18mo,
+cloth. 2<i>s.</i></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>SIX CUSHIONS. By <span class="smcap">Charlotte M. Yonge</span>. Second
+Edition. With Frontispiece. Royal 18mo, cloth. 3<i>s.</i></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>SPRING AND AUTUMN. By <span class="smcap">Ph&oelig;be Allen</span>,
+Author of "Gilmory." With Preface by the late Canon
+<span class="smcap">Ashwell</span>, M.A. 18mo, cloth. With Frontispiece. 1<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>STOKESLEY SECRET. By <span class="smcap">Charlotte M. Yonge</span>.
+Fourth Edition. Royal 18mo, cloth. 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>STORIES ON PROVERBS. 18mo, cloth. 1<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>STORY LECTURES FOR COTTAGE READINGS,
+BIBLE CLASSES, MOTHERS' MEETINGS, &amp;c. By <span class="smcap">C. M.
+Hallett</span>. 18mo, cloth. 1<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>SUNSHINE IN SICKNESS. By the Author of
+"Pictures of the Heavens," &amp;c. Fourth Edition. Fcap. 8vo,
+cloth. 2<i>s.</i></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>SUNSHINE IN SORROW. By the Author of "Sunshine
+in Sickness." A New and Cheaper Edition. Post 8vo,
+cloth. 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>TE DEUM. <span class="smcap">Miles's</span> Illustrations. Square 16mo,
+cloth, red lines, gilt edges. 2<i>s.</i></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>VERSES ON THE GOSPELS, FOR SUNDAYS
+AND HOLYDAYS. By <span class="smcap">Charlotte M. Yonge</span>. Demy 18mo,
+paper covers, 6<i>d.</i>; cloth, 1<i>s.</i></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>WESTFIELD VILLAGE. By <span class="smcap">Ellen E. Lushington</span>.
+Fcap. 8vo, cloth. 2<i>s.</i></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>WOMANKIND. By <span class="smcap">Charlotte M. Yonge</span>. Fourth
+Edition. Crown 8vo. 6<i>s.</i></div>
+
+
+<div class='center'><br /><br />
+London: WALTER SMITH (late <span class="smcap">Mozley</span>),<br />
+34, King Street, Covent Garden.<br />
+</div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 260px;">
+<img src="images/cover-back.jpg" width="260" height="400" alt="Back cover" title="" />
+</div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class='tnote'><h3>Transcriber's Note:</h3>
+<p>Obvious punctuation errors were corrected.</p>
+<p>In the original text, in the Books for Presents section, the author's names were <span class='smcap'>Small-capped</span>, ALL-CAPPED or both within
+the same name
+depending on which line or lines the name fell on. For the HTML version, these were changed for uniformity.</p>
+<p>The remaining corrections made are indicated by dotted lines under the corrections. Scroll the mouse over the word and the original text will <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'apprear'">appear</ins>.</p></div>
+
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Sowing and Sewing, by Charlotte Mary Yonge
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Sowing and Sewing
+       A Sexagesima Story
+
+
+Author: Charlotte Mary Yonge
+
+
+
+Release Date: May 2, 2010  [eBook #32200]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOWING AND SEWING***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Emmy, Juliet Sutherland, and the Project Gutenberg
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+SOWING AND SEWING.
+
+A Sexagesima Story.
+
+by
+
+CHARLOTTE M. YONGE.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+New York:
+E. P. Dutton and Co.,
+39, West Twenty-Third Street.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+PERHAPS some may read allusions to a sacred Parable underlying this
+little story. If so, I hope they will not think it an irreverent mode of
+applying the lesson.
+
+                                                     C. M. YONGE.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+          CHAPTER I.                   PAGE
+          THE SERMON                     1
+
+          CHAPTER II.
+          THE SUNDAY SCHOOL             13
+
+          CHAPTER III.
+          THE WORKING PARTY             28
+
+          CHAPTER IV.
+          TEACHER AMY                   49
+
+          CHAPTER V.
+          THE TROUSSEAU                 64
+
+          CHAPTER VI.
+          STITCH, STITCH, STITCH        79
+
+          CHAPTER VII.
+          WANDERING EYES               101
+
+          CHAPTER VIII.
+          AMY'S VISITS                 115
+
+          CHAPTER IX.
+          AWKWARD MEETINGS             127
+
+          CHAPTER X.
+          THE RECKONING                150
+
+          CHAPTER XI.
+          WHICH SHALL PROSPER?         159
+
+
+
+
+SOWING AND SEWING.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE SERMON.
+
+
+FOUR girls were together in a pleasant cottage room with a large window,
+over which fluttered some dry sticks, which would in due time bear
+clematis and Virginia creeper leaves.
+
+Three of them were Miss Lee's apprentices, and this room had been built
+out at the back of the baker's shop for them. The place was the property
+of the Lee family themselves, and nobody in Langley was more respected
+than they were. Ambrose Lee, whose name was over the baker's shop, and
+who kept a horse and cart, was always called Mr. Lee.
+
+He had married a pretty, delicate young girl, who had soon fallen into
+such hopeless ill-health, that his sister Charlotte was obliged to live
+at home to attend to her and to the shop. And when young Mrs. Lee died,
+leaving three small children, another sister, Rose, gave up her place to
+help in the care of her old father and the little ones.
+
+Rose Lee had been a sewing maid, and, being clever, had become a very
+fair dressmaker; so she took in needlework from the first, and when good
+old master Lee died, and the children had grown old enough to be more
+off her hands, she became the dressmaker and sempstress of the place,
+since there was no doubt that all she took in hand would be thoroughly
+well turned out of hand, from a child's under garment up to Mrs. and
+Miss Manners's dresses. "For," as her sister Charlotte proudly said of
+her, "the ladies had everything made down here, except one or two
+dresses from London for the fashion." Her nephews were both from home,
+one as a pupil-teacher, the other at a baker's with a superior business,
+and her niece, Amy, the only girl of the family, had begun as a
+pupil-teacher, but she had such bad headaches at the end of her first
+year that her father was afraid to let her go on studying for
+examinations, and cancelled her engagement, and thus she became an
+assistant to her aunt. Then Jessie Hollis, from the shop, came home from
+her aunt's, unwilling to go to service, and begged Miss Lee to take her
+and teach her dressmaking; and, having thus begun, she consented, rather
+less willingly, to take likewise Florence Cray from the Manners Arms,
+chiefly because she had known her mother all her life, and believed her
+to be careful of the girl; besides which, it was a very respectable
+house.
+
+As plain work, as well as dressmaking, was done, there was quite enough
+employment for all the hands, as well as for the sewing machine, at
+which Amy, a fair, delicate-looking girl, was whirring away, while
+Jessie was making the button-holes of a long _princesse_ dress, and
+Florence tacking in some lining; or rather each was pausing a little in
+her work to answer Grace Hollis, Jessie's sister, a businesslike-looking
+young person, dressed in her town-going hat and jacket, who had stepped
+in, on her way to meet the Minsterham omnibus, to ask whether Miss Lee
+wanted to have anything done for her, and likewise how many yards of
+narrow black velvet would be wanted for the trimming of her own and
+Jessie's spring dresses.
+
+Miss Lee was gone up to the house for a grand measuring of all the
+children for their new frocks; but Amy began to calculate and ask
+questions about the width and number of rows, and Jessie presently
+said--
+
+"After all, I think mine will look very well without any round the
+skirt."
+
+"Why, Jessie, I thought you said the dress you saw looked so genteel
+with the three rows----"
+
+"Yes," said Jessie; "but I have thought since--" and she hesitated and
+blushed.
+
+Amy got up from the machine, came towards her, and, laying her hand on
+her, said, gently--
+
+"I know, Jessie."
+
+"And I know, though you wanted to keep it a secret!" cried Florence. "I
+was at church too last night!"
+
+"Oh, yes, I saw you, Florence; and wasn't it beautiful?" said Amy,
+earnestly.
+
+"Most lovely! It is worth something to have a stranger here sometimes to
+get a fresh hint from!" said Florence.
+
+"I call that more than a hint," said Jessie, in a low voice. "I am so
+glad you felt it as I did, Flossy."
+
+"Felt it! You don't mean that you got hold of it? Then you can tell
+whether it was cut on the bias, and how the little puffs were put on!"
+
+"Why, what are you thinking of, Flossy?" exclaimed Amy. "Bias--puffs!
+One would think you were talking of a dress!"
+
+"Well, of course I was. Of that lovely self-trimming on that cashmere
+dress of the lady that came with Miss Manners. What--what are you
+laughing at, Grace?"
+
+"Oh! Florence," said Amy, in a disappointed tone; "we thought you meant
+the sermon."
+
+"The sermon?" said Florence, half annoyed, half puzzled; "well, it was
+a very good one; but----"
+
+"It did make one feel--oh, I don't know how!" said Jessie, much too
+eager to share her feelings with the other girls, even to perceive that
+Florence wanted to go off to the trimming.
+
+"Wasn't it beautiful--most beautiful--when he said it was not enough
+only just not to be weeds, or to be only flowers, gay and lovely to the
+eye?" said Amy.
+
+"Yes," went on Jessie; "he said that we might see there were some
+flowers just for beauty, all double, and with no fruit or good at all in
+them, but dying off into a foul mass of decay."
+
+"Ay," said Grace; "I thought of your dahlias, that, what with the rain
+and the frost, were--pah!--the nastiest mess at last."
+
+"Then he said," proceeded Jessie, "that there were some fair and comely,
+some not, but only bringing forth just their own seeds, not doing any
+real good, like people that keep themselves to themselves, and think it
+is enough to be out of mischief and do good to themselves and their
+families."
+
+"And didn't you like it," broke in Amy, "when he said that was not what
+God asked of us? He wanted us to be like the wheat, or the vine, or the
+apple, or the strawberry, some plain in blossom, some fair and lovely to
+look at, but valued for the fruit they bring forth, not selfishly, just
+to keep up their own stock, but for the support and joy and blessing of
+all!"
+
+"One's heart just burnt within one," continued Jessie, "when he bade us
+each one to go home and think what we could do to bring forth fruit for
+the Master, some thirty, some sixty, some an hundredfold. Not only just
+keeping oneself straight, but doing something for Christ through His
+members."
+
+"Only think of its being for Christ Himself," said Amy softly.
+
+"Well," said Grace, "I thought we might take turns to go to Miss
+Manners's missionary working parties. I never gave in to them before,
+but I shall not be comfortable now unless I do something. And was that
+what you meant about the velvet trimming, Jessie? It will save--"
+
+"Fifteen pence," said Jessie.
+
+"Very well--or you may say threepence more. So we can put that into the
+box, if you like. I must be going now, and look sharp if I'm to catch
+the bus. So good-bye, all of you."
+
+"Oh! but won't you have the self-trimming," broke in Florence. "Perhaps
+she'll be there on Friday night, and then we might amongst us make out
+how it is done."
+
+"Florence Cray, for shame!" said Grace. "I do believe you minded nothing
+but that dress all through that sermon."
+
+"Well," said Florence, who was a good-humoured girl, "there was no
+helping it, when there it was just opposite in the aisle, and I'd never
+seen one like it; and as to the sermon, you've just given it to me over
+again, you've got it so pat; and I'll go to the missionary work meeting
+too, Grace, and very like the young lady will be there, and I can see
+her trimming."
+
+"If you go for that, I would go to a fashion-book at once," said Grace;
+"but I must really be off now, I've not another minute to stop."
+
+"Oh dear, I forgot," cried Florence, jumping up, "I was to ask you to
+call for our best tea-pot at Bilson's. And my mother wants a dozen--"
+and there her voice was lost as she followed Grace out of the room
+through the shop, and even along the road, discoursing on her
+commissions.
+
+Amy and Jessie were left together, and Amy stood up and said:
+
+"Dear, I am so glad you felt it as I did!"
+
+"One could not help it, if one listened at all," said Jessie. "Amy, I
+must be doing something for His sake. I can't rest now without it. You
+teach at the Sunday school. Don't you think I might?"
+
+Amy meditated a little.
+
+"I think they would make up a class for you. When Miss Pemberton's niece
+goes away, the class she takes has to be joined to her aunt's, and that
+makes a large one."
+
+"Then will you speak to Miss Manners for me?" asked Jessie. "Are they
+little girls or big ones?"
+
+"Oh, that's the second class. They would be sure not to give you that,"
+said Amy, as if she thought the aspiration very high, not to say
+presumptuous. "Perhaps Margaret Roller, the pupil-teacher, you know, may
+take that. Then I should have hers and you mine. They are dear little
+girls, some of them, only Susan Bray always wants a tight hand over her,
+Polly Smithers is so stupid, and Fanny Morris is so sly, one always has
+to be on the watch."
+
+"Here she comes," said Florence, who was the nearest to the window, and
+the entrance of Aunt Rose, a brisk, fair little woman, young looking for
+her age, recalled all her "young ladies," as Florence and Jessie, and
+perhaps Amy likewise, preferred being called, to recollect that
+stitching was, at that moment at least, the first thing to be attended
+to.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.
+
+
+PERHAPS Amy's business-like tone about the school classes fell a little
+flat upon Jessie's ear. She had not been to a Sunday school in her
+childhood. Her father had been a prosperous upholsterer's foreman in
+Minsterham, and Grace and Jessie had gone to an "academy" till, when
+they were sixteen and fourteen years old, their father died of a fever,
+and their mother, who had a cottage of her own at Langley, resolved on
+coming back and setting up a small shop there for all sorts of wares,
+with Clementina Hollis over the door.
+
+Jessie was about eighteen, two years younger than her sister. She had
+always been a bright, quick, lively girl, but never very thoughtful, and
+much too inquisitive, till her curiosity had brought on her a terrible
+accident, which had kept her laid up in a hospital for many weeks. She
+had come home quite well at last, and much improved. A fellow patient,
+and likewise a lady who had visited her and lent her books, had both
+made much impression on her. She cared about right and wrong as she had
+never done before, was more useful at home, and tried to restrain her
+inclination to find out all about everything; she said her prayers more
+carefully, went to Church more often, and heeded more what she heard;
+and altogether she was what her mother called an altered girl. This was
+Lent, and a clergyman was staying with Mr. Somers to preach a course of
+sermons on the Friday evenings, and it was one of these that had so much
+struck these young girls, and had put into their minds for the first
+time, with any real force, the full sense that the true Christian must
+seek to work for the good of the household of Christ as well as his own
+household, and that "bringing forth good fruit" does not simply mean
+taking care of oneself, and trying to save one's own soul.
+
+The language had been beautiful and stirring, and there was a burning
+desire in more than one heart to be doing something for Christ's sake.
+The first thing that Jessie thought of was the Sunday school. She had
+read books about it, and her fellow patient was full of ardour about
+"training little lambs," as she called it, so that it seemed the most
+beautiful and suitable task she could undertake.
+
+Amy Lee, on the other hand, hardly knew how to spend a Sunday without
+the school. She had been a scholar there until she had quite outgrown
+the first class, and had been more than a year confirmed, and then she
+had become a teacher of the little ones. She liked the employment, and
+was fond of the children; she would have been sorry to drop the
+connection with Miss Manners or with Miss Joy, the mistress, and the
+rest of the school staff; she was pleased to work for and with Mr.
+Somers and Miss Manners, and she had been trained to be reverent and
+attentive; but it had never occurred to her to think of it as more than
+a nice and good thing to do, or to look on it as a work undertaken for
+Christ's sake.
+
+"Teaching at school, I do that already," she said to herself, when Aunt
+Rose's entrance had made her work her machine more and her tongue less.
+"I must get something more to do. Oh! I know. There's poor old
+half-blind Mrs. Long. She is left to herself terribly, they do say, and
+I'll go and tidy her up, and see to her and read to her every day. I
+could do it before my work and after. Maybe I might get her to be a
+better old woman than she ever has been. Books say that nothing so
+softens an old woman as a nice, bright young girl coming in to make much
+of her, and I'm sure I'm nice and bright--not so much in myself, but
+compared with the whole lot of Longs."
+
+So Amy told her plan to her aunts, as soon as Florence and Jessie had
+gone home to dinner.
+
+The two aunts looked at one another, and Aunt Charlotte said, "Did the
+sermon make you think of that?" in rather a doubtful tone.
+
+"Yes," said Amy. "One seemed to long to be doing some good, not be only
+an empty flower, as he said."
+
+"Mrs. Long," said Aunt Rose; "she ain't a very nice person to fix
+upon."
+
+"But no one wants it so much, aunt," said Amy.
+
+"That's true," said Aunt Charlotte. "Well, Amy, we must think about it,
+and speak to your father. Run out now, and gather a bit of parsley for
+his cheese."
+
+Amy knew it was to get her out of the way, and felt rather disappointed
+that the proposal was not seized upon at once, and applauded.
+
+"She's a good girl," said Aunt Rose.
+
+"Well, so she is, and I don't like to stand in her way," said Aunt
+Charlotte.
+
+"But to pitch on old Sally Long of all folk in the world!" said Rose.
+
+"There's no doubt but she does want something done for her; but I
+misdoubt me if she will choose our Amy to do it. Besides, I don't like
+her tongue. That's what daunts me most."
+
+"Yes. If she took it kind of the girl, she would never be satisfied
+without talking to her of all the old backbiting tales that ever was!
+And we that have kept our girl up from hearing of all evil just like a
+lady--"
+
+"What is it?" said Ambrose Lee, himself coming in, after putting up his
+cart.
+
+"Why, that sermon last night has worked upon our Amy, so that she wants
+to do something extra," said Aunt Rose.
+
+"A right down good sermon it was," said the father; "a bit flowery, to
+suit the maidens, I suppose."
+
+"And she said it all off to me, quite beautiful," said Rose, who had
+stayed at home.
+
+"And what does the child want to be doing? I won't have her go back to
+her books again, to worry her head into aching."
+
+"No, that's not what she wants. Her notion is to run in and out and see
+to old Widow Long."
+
+"Widow Long!" exclaimed the baker. "Why, she's got as slandering a
+tongue as any in the parish! Give the poor old soul a loaf or a sup of
+broth if you like, but I'll not have my girl running in and out to hear
+all the gossip of the place, and worse."
+
+"I knew you would say so, Ambrose," returned Charlotte. "All the same,
+the child's thought shames me that I've never done anything for the poor
+old thing; and she won't harm me."
+
+Ambrose chuckled a little. "I don't know but aunt likes a spice of
+gossip as much as her niece. 'Tis she tells us all the news."
+
+"Well, I can get plenty of that in the shop, without going to Dame Long
+for it," said Charlotte, laughing. "I like the real article, genuine and
+unadulterated."
+
+They were laughing at Aunt Charlotte's wit when Amy came in, and she
+looked from one to the other, afraid they were laughing at her project,
+and ready to be offended or hurt. She did not like it when her father
+said, "Look here, my girl, Aunt Charlotte says Dame Long's dish of
+tongue is too spicy for you, and she must have it for herself."
+
+"I don't know what you mean, father," said Amy, nearly crying, "I didn't
+want it for that."
+
+"No, you didn't, child," said Charlotte; "but come along here, I want
+you to help me dish up."
+
+Amy came with the tears standing in her eyes into the back kitchen,
+vexed, angered, and ready to be cross. Her aunt set her to prepare the
+dish for the Irish stew, while she said, "Father was at his jokes with
+me, Amy. He don't like you to be running in and out to old Sally Long by
+yourself; no more does your Aunt Rosy nor I; but the poor old body
+didn't ought to be neglected, and the sermon was just as much for me as
+for you, so I've made up my mind to look after her a bit, and you may
+come in with me sometimes if you like."
+
+"That was not what I meant," said Amy, rather fretfully.
+
+"I dare say not. There, mind what you are about, or you'll have that
+dish down. Where's the flour? Come, now, Amy, don't be daunted, if you
+can't do good quite in your own way; why shouldn't you ask Miss Dora
+now?"
+
+Amy muttered and pouted. "I'm not such a child now!"
+
+"Ain't you then, to be making such a pout at not getting just your own
+way."
+
+Down came the dish with a bounce on the table, and away ran Amy up the
+stairs, where she cried and choked, and thought how hard it was that she
+should be hindered, and laughed at, and scolded, when she wanted to do
+good, and bring forth the fruit of good works.
+
+She heard Aunt Rose ask where she was, and her Aunt Charlotte answer,
+"Oh! she will be down in a minute."
+
+She felt it kind that no one said that she was in the sulks. The relief
+did her good; she could not bear that any one should guess what was
+amiss. So she washed her face in haste, tidied her hair and collar, and
+hoped that she looked as if she had gone up for nothing else.
+
+Perhaps her father had had a hint, and she was his great pet, so he took
+care that the apprentices should not suspect that Amy had been "upset."
+So he began to tell what had made him late at home. He had overtaken
+poor Widow Smithers in much trouble, for she had had a note from the
+hospital to say that her little boy, Edwin, must be discharged as
+incurable. It was a hip complaint, and he could not walk, and she had
+not been able to find any way of getting him home.
+
+It so happened that all the gentlefolks were out for the day, and she
+did not get her letter in time before the market people set off. She was
+indeed too poor to hire a conveyance, and was going in, fearing that she
+might have to carry this nine-year-old boy herself five miles unless she
+could get a lift. So Mr. Lee had driven her into the town, and after
+doing his work there, had come up to the hospital, and had taken her in
+with poor little Edwin, who was laid on a shawl in the cart, but cried a
+good deal at the jolting. The doctors said that they could do no more
+for the poor little fellow, and she would have to take him home and do
+the best she could for him.
+
+It fell very hard upon her, poor woman, for she was obliged to go out to
+work every day, since she had four children, and only Harry, the one who
+was older then Edwin, earned anything--and indeed he only got three
+shillings a week for minding some cows on the common. The two girls
+_must_ go to school, and indeed they were too young to be of much use
+and the boy would have to be left alone all day, except for the dinner
+hour, as he had been before the hospital had been tried for him.
+
+"There, Amy," said Aunt Charlotte, as they were clearing away the dinner
+things after the menfolk had gone out, "there's something you could do.
+It would be a real kindness to go in and see after that poor little
+man."
+
+"Yes," added Rose; "you might run in at dinner time, and I'd spare you a
+little time then, and you might read to him, and cheer him up--yes, and
+teach him a bit too."
+
+"Edwin Smithers was always a very tiresome, stupid little boy," said
+Amy, rather crossly, from her infant school recollections.
+
+"Then he will want help all the more," said Aunt Rose, and it sounded
+almost like mimicry of what Amy had said of old Mrs. Long.
+
+She did not like it at all. It is the devices of our own heart that we
+prefer to follow, whether for good or harm, and specially when we think
+them good. And yet we specially pray that we may do all such good works
+as our Lord hath _prepared for us to walk in_, as if we were to rejoice
+in having our opportunities set out before us, yet the teaching a dull
+little boy of whom she had had experience in the infant school, did not
+seem to her half such interesting work as converting an old woman of
+whom strange things were said.
+
+However, Amy was on the whole a good girl, though she had her little
+tempers, and did not guard against them as she ought, thinking that what
+was soon over did not signify.
+
+By and by, Jessie came back radiant with gladness, and found a moment
+to say, before Florence Cray came in, that her mother was quite
+agreeable to her teaching in the Sunday school, if Miss Manners liked
+it. She had gone there herself for some years when she and Miss Manners
+were both young, and she was well pleased that her daughter should be
+helpful there.
+
+Amy, who was fond of Jessie, was delighted to think of having her
+company all the way to school, and her little fit of displeasure melted
+quite away. But when Florence was heard coming in, both girls were
+silent on their plans, knowing that she would only laugh at their
+wishing to do anything so dull.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE WORKING PARTY.
+
+
+"ARE these fruits of the sermon on Friday night?" said Miss Manners to
+Mr. Somers, as they finished winding up their parish accounts on Monday
+morning. "Not only, as you know, here is Grace Hollis wanting to join
+Mrs. Somers's Tuesday working parties, Jessie begging to help at the
+Sunday school; but I find that good little Amy Lee went and sat with
+poor Edwin Smithers for half an hour on Sunday after church, showing him
+pictures, and she has promised his mother to come and look in on him
+every day. It is very nice of the Lees to have thought of it, and to
+spare her."
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Somers, "the Lees are always anxious to do right."
+
+"I had a talk with Charlotte just now. She came to get some flannel for
+Mrs. Long. She says she will make it up for her, if the old woman can
+have it out of the club. Well, she says it is quite striking how all
+those girls have been moved by Mr. Soulsby's sermon on Friday evening.
+Amy came home and nearly said it all off to her Aunt Rose, and the girls
+were all talking about it in the workroom in the morning, full of
+earnestness to make some effort."
+
+"I saw they were looking very attentive," said Mr. Somers. "Shall you
+accept Jessie Hollis's help?"
+
+"I think I can make a class up for her."
+
+"I suppose it would be a pity to check her, but do you imagine that she
+knows anything?"
+
+"I don't know; but she is not at all a stupid girl, and she cannot go
+far wrong with the questions on the Catechism and Gospels that I shall
+give her. Indeed I had thought of asking her and Margaret Roller, and,
+perhaps, Amy Lee, to come and prepare the lessons here on Friday
+evenings after church."
+
+"A good plan," said Mr. Somers, "if it be not giving you too much to
+do."
+
+"Not a bit, especially at this time of year, when nobody wants me in the
+evenings. My only doubt is whether it is not keeping the girls out too
+late, but I will see whether it can be managed. The children might be
+better taught, and the teachers might learn something themselves in this
+indirect way."
+
+Perhaps this was Miss Dora's way of acting on the sermon, but she could
+not begin that week, as a friend was coming to spend the Friday with
+her.
+
+Meantime Grace Hollis had joined the working party that met every
+Tuesday afternoon for an hour to make clothes for a very poor district
+in London. She had been sometimes known to say that it was all waste of
+time to make things and send them away to thriftless, shiftless folk;
+but she had heard something of the love of our neighbour, and our
+membership with the rest of our Lord's Body, which had touched her
+heart. So she brought her thimble and needle, to join the working party
+who sat round the Rectory dining-table. Mrs. Somers and Miss Manners
+shook hands, made her welcome, and found her a seat and some work. Grace
+looked about her to be sure who the party were. Mrs. Nowell, the
+gardener's wife, sat next to her. Then came little Miss Agnes from the
+Hall, sewing hard away, and Lucy Drew from Chalk-pit Farm, who was about
+her age, next to her, and old Miss Pemberton knitting.
+
+"A mixed lot," said Grace to herself, and then her eye lit upon deformed
+Naomi Norris, of whom she did not approve at all. Did not the girl come
+of a low dissenting family, and had not her father the presumption to
+keep a little shop in Hazel Lane which took away half the custom,
+especially as they pretended to make toffee? Meanwhile here was Miss
+Wenlock, the governess at the squire's, and Miss Dora reading aloud to
+the party in turn. It was the history of some mission work in London,
+and Miss Lee, who was there, listened with great pleasure, as did many
+of the others. Indeed she well might, for her eldest sister's son hoped
+one day to be a missionary. But Grace was not used to being read to,
+and, as she said, "it fidgeted her sadly," and she was wondering all the
+time what mistakes mother would make in the shop without her, and she
+began to be haunted with a doubt whether she had put out a parcel of
+raisins that Farmer Drew's man was to call for. The worry about it
+prevented her from attending to a word that was read; indeed she could
+hardly keep herself from jumping up, making up an excuse, and rushing
+home to see about the raisins!
+
+Then she greatly disapproved of the shape of the bedgown she had been
+set to make, and did not believe it would sit properly. It was ladies'
+cutting towards which she felt contemptuous, and yet she would have
+thought it impolite to interfere. Besides, it might make the whole
+sitting go on longer, and Grace was burning to get home. At last the
+reading ended, but oh! my patience, that creature Naomi was actually
+putting herself forward to ask some nonsensical question, where some
+place was, and Miss Agnes must needs get a map, and every one go and
+look at it--Grace too, not to be behindhand or uncivil to the young
+ladies; but had not she had enough of maps and such useless stupid
+things long ago when she left school at Miss Perkins's?
+
+When at last this was over, Mrs. Somers came and spoke to her while she
+was putting on her hat, and thanked her pleasantly, saying that she was
+afraid that beginning in the middle of a book made it less interesting,
+but that one day more would finish it. Then she added "I don't like the
+pattern of that bedgown, do you?"
+
+"No, Mrs. Somers, not at all," replied Grace. "It quite went against me
+to put good work into it."
+
+"I wonder whether you could help us to a better shape next time," said
+Mrs. Somers. "We should be very much obliged to you. This pattern came
+out of a needlework book, and I am not satisfied about it."
+
+Grace promised, and went away in better humour, but more because she had
+been made important than because she cared for what she had been doing.
+She was glad no one could say she had been behindhand with her service,
+but it was a burthen to her, and she did not open her mind to enter into
+it so as to make it otherwise.
+
+Indeed, her mind was more full of her accounts and the bad debts, and of
+the cheapest way of getting in her groceries than of anything else. As
+she walked back through the village she wondered whether Mrs. Somers and
+Miss Manners would send to her mother's for their brown sugar this
+summer. That would make it worth while to go to a better but more
+expensive place, and have in a larger stock; and Grace went on reckoning
+the risk all the time, and wondering whether the going to the working
+parties would secure the ladies' custom. In that case the time would not
+be wasted. It did not come into Grace's head whether what she had
+thought of for the service of God she might be turning to the service of
+Mammon, if she only just endured it for the sake of standing well with
+the gentry. But then, was it not her duty to consider her shop and her
+mother's interest?
+
+She was quite vexed and angry when she saw Jessie go and fetch the big
+Family Bible that evening, turning off the whole pile of lesson-books to
+which it formed the base.
+
+"Now what can you be doing that for?" she said sharply.
+
+"I want to prepare my lesson for to-morrow," said Jessie.
+
+"And is not a little Bible good enough for you, without upsetting the
+whole table?"
+
+"My Bible has got no references," said Jessie.
+
+"And what do little children like that want of references? If you are to
+be turning the house upside down and wasting time like that over
+preparing as you call it, I don't know as ma will let you undertake
+it."
+
+"I have ironed all the collars and cuffs, Grace," said Jessie; "yes, and
+looked over the stockings."
+
+Grace had no more to say; she knew Jessie had wonderful eyes for a
+ladder or a hole; but it worried her and gave her a sense of disrespect
+that the pyramid which surmounted the big Bible should be interfered
+with, or that the Book itself should have its repose interfered with
+"for a pack of dirty children," when it had never been opened before
+except to register christenings, or to be spread out and read when some
+near relation died, as part of the mourning ceremony.
+
+It really made her feel as if something unfortunate had happened to see
+the large print pages on the little round table, and her sister peering
+into the references and looking them out in her own little Bible, then
+diligently marking them.
+
+Her mother, too, asked what Jessie was about, and though she did not
+say anything against her employment, their looking on, and the
+expression on Grace's face, worried Jessie so much that she could not
+think, and only put a slip of paper into her own book at each she found.
+The chapter she had chosen was the Parable of the Sower, on which she
+had once heard a sermon. She was amazed to find how many parallel
+passages there were, and how beautifully they explained one another when
+she made time for comparing them on Sunday morning. She saw herself
+beforehand expounding them to the children, and winning their hearts, as
+her friend in the hospital had described, and she was quite ready in her
+neat black silk and fur jacket, with a little blue velvet hat, when Amy
+Lee came to call for her, in her grey merino, black cloth coat, and
+little hat to match.
+
+They met Miss Manners at the school door, and were pleasantly greeted,
+and taken into the large cheerful room, all hung round with maps and
+pictures, where the classes were assembling, and one or two of the other
+teachers had come.
+
+The bell was heard ringing, and while the children trooped in, Miss
+Manners showed Jessie a chair with some books laid open upon it, the
+class register on the top, and said:
+
+"I am sorry there has not been time to talk over your work this week;
+but I have laid out the books for you, and if you are in any difficulty
+come and ask me."
+
+By this time the children had come in and taken their places, and Jessie
+was pleased to see that her class was of children of eight or nine years
+old--not such little ones as Amy had threatened her with. Miss Manners
+went to the harmonium and gave out a Sunday morning hymn, which was very
+sweetly sung, and then she read prayers, everybody kneeling, and making
+the responses, so that Jessie enjoyed it greatly, and felt quite
+refreshed by the prayer for a blessing on the teachers and the taught.
+Then Miss Manners told the eight little girls who stood in a row that
+Miss Hollis would teach them, and she hoped they would be very good and
+steady and obedient, and say their lessons perfectly.
+
+Jessie knew all but two who came from the other end of the parish, and
+were not customers of her mother--at least she knew what families they
+belonged to, and had only to learn their Christian names from her list.
+
+"Collect, please teacher," said the first girl, Susan Bray, very much in
+the voice in which she would have said "Candles, please miss," in the
+shop.
+
+The Prayer-book was uppermost, and Jessie found she had to hear the
+Collect for the day repeated by five perfectly, by two rather badly, and
+one broke down altogether. The question-book lay open under it. Some of
+the questions were very easy, but of others Jessie was not sure that the
+children were right when they replied to some quite glibly, and she was
+not sure how to help them in others.
+
+Then followed the opening of books again. Jessie was longing to give out
+all she had to say about the Sower, and began bidding them turn to it in
+St. Matthew, but Susan Bray stopped her most decisively. "Oh! please
+teacher, we've done that ever so long ago. We always reads the Gospel
+for the day, and here's the question-book, and it's got answers." And
+she thrust it right under the nose of Jessie, who by this time did not
+quite love Miss Susan Bray. She had plainly been sharp enough to see
+when her teacher was at fault.
+
+The children read the Gospel for the day. It was Refreshing Sunday, so
+it was not a difficult one; the children were ready with the answers
+till the application came, and then Jessie had again to help them, which
+she did by reading the printed answers and making them repeat them after
+her, word for word. While she was doing this with Mary Smithers, who
+certainly was dulness itself, at one end of the class, there was a
+whispering at the other, and she saw two children trying on each other's
+gloves, and she quickly put an end to that, and went on with another
+question and answer. The moment her eye was off Susan Bray and Lily
+Bell, however, they began comparing some gay cards. Jessie turned on
+them: "You are playing with those things. Give them to me."
+
+Lily Bell began to cry, and Susan pertly said, "It's our markers,
+teacher."
+
+"I don't care. I won't have you idle. Give them to me, this instant."
+
+Just then the church bell began to ring, and there was a general
+moving; but Jessie would not be beaten, and caused the two cards to be
+given up to her. The girls both cried with all their might while she was
+marking the class down, and, as they no doubt intended, Miss Manners
+came to see what was the matter.
+
+"Please, ma'am, teacher has taken away our markers, and we shan't know
+where our Psalms is."
+
+"They were playing with them," said Jessie.
+
+"We wasn't. We was finding our Psalms," said Susan.
+
+"You should not have done so while Miss Hollis was teaching," said Miss
+Manners. "I hope, if she is good enough to give them back to you, that
+you will attend better in the afternoon."
+
+Jessie felt it all a little flat and disappointing, all the more so that
+Amy Lee joined her, and talked all the way to church about the
+children, who had all passed through her hands when she was a pupil
+teacher, telling all their little tiresome ways. It seemed to rub off
+all the gloss, and to change her scheme of feeding the young lambs for
+the Great Shepherd's sake into a mere struggle with tiresome, fidgety
+children.
+
+Still her hopes and her spirits rose again at church. She had her
+expounding of the Sower on her mind, and hoped yet to deliver it when
+she went to afternoon school; but there proved to be the Catechism and a
+whole set of hymns to be said, and questions to be asked about them.
+These questions did not come very readily to such an unpractised tongue
+as hers, and she thought she could lead off into the discourse she had
+thought out over the Bible. But she had hardly gone through twenty words
+before she saw a squabble going on between Lily Bell and Mary Smithers,
+and she had no sooner separated them, and taken up the thread of her
+discourse about grace being sown and watered in our hearts, than Susan
+Bray popped up up with "Please, teacher, it's time to read to us--Its
+_Miss Angelina_," pointing to a little gay story-book.
+
+"You should not be rude, and interrupt," said Jessie; whereupon Susan
+pouted, the two idlest began to play with each other's fingers, and, as
+soon as she paused to take breath, Lily Bell jumped up, and brought her
+the book open.
+
+She had to give up the point, and begin to read something that did not
+seem to her nearly so improving as her own discourse, as it was all
+about a doll left behind upon a heath; but the children listened to it
+eagerly.
+
+Was this all the good she was to do by sacrificing all her time on
+Sunday? Like Grace, she felt much inclined to give it up, and all the
+more when Florence Cray came into the work-room the next morning,
+laughing and saying--
+
+"Well, the impudence of some folk! There was that there little Bray! I
+hear that she should say that Miss Hollis was put to teach her, and she
+warn't agoing to care for one as wasn't a lady."
+
+"I can make her mind me fast enough," said Amy.
+
+"O, you are bred to be a teacher," said Florence; "that doesn't count.
+Nobody else should trouble themselves with the tiresome little
+ungrateful things. I'm sure I wouldn't; but then I don't set up for
+goodness, nor want to be thought better than other folk."
+
+Jessie had known that something of this kind would be said, and was
+prepared for it; but the child's speech vexed her sorely. However, she
+said--
+
+"I'm not going to be beat by a chit like that," and at that moment Miss
+Lee came in, and that kind of chatter ceased.
+
+But Jessie's cheeks burned over her work, and she thought how foolish
+she had been to let her fancy for doing good, and trying to live up to
+the sermon, lead her where she was allowed to do nothing, but get
+herself teased and insulted, right and left.
+
+Should she give up? That would look so silly. Yes, but would it not
+serve Miss Manners right for giving her such stupid, unspiritual kind of
+teaching to do, and also serve the children right for their pertness and
+ingratitude?
+
+No, she could not give up in this way. She had begun, and she must go
+on, at least till she had some reason for giving up respectably and
+civilly--only she wished she had known how unlike it was to what she had
+expected before she had undertaken it!
+
+Then she was sensible of a certain odd, uppish, self-asserting feeling
+within her. She used to have it in old times, but she had learnt to
+distrust it, and to know that it generally came when she was in a bad
+way.
+
+Was she thinking of pleasing herself, or of offering a little work to
+please God, and try to let the good seed turn to good fruit? Ah! but was
+it all a mistake? Was becoming a mark for Susan Bray to worry, doing any
+good at all?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+TEACHER AMY.
+
+
+IT was a pleasant sight for Amy when poor little Edwin Smithers's pale
+face brightened up, as she opened his door.
+
+He was not like the rough little monkey she had known at the infant
+school, who had only seemed to want to learn as little, and to play as
+many tricks, as he could. In the hospital, the attention kind people had
+paid him had quickened up his understanding, and mended his manners. He
+had been petted and amused there, and the being left alone in the dull
+cottage was a sad trial to him. His mother had regular work, and so had
+his elder brother, but this kept them out all day from eight till five,
+except that Mrs. Smithers kept Friday to do her own washing in. She was
+obliged to be away even at dinner time, as her work lay far from home,
+and she gave her next-door neighbour, Mrs. Rowe, a shilling a week to
+keep up the fire, look in on the sick boy, and give him his dinner.
+
+She was unlucky in her neighbour. Many women would have gladly given far
+more kind service for no pay at all, but they were too far off, and Mrs.
+Rowe made it a rule to "do nothing for nothing."
+
+His brother and sisters came in for a little while at twelve, their
+dinner time, but they wanted to go out to play, and had no notion of
+amusing him; indeed he was glad when they went away; Charlie clumped
+about so, and made such a noise, and little Jenny would take away his
+picture books or the toys that had been given him in the hospital.
+
+Then Polly would call her a naughty girl, and snatch them from her, and
+so his little wooden horse lost its head, and his railway train was
+uncoupled, and one wheel pulled off; and when old Mrs. Rowe found him
+crying, all she said was, "Dear! dear! don't ye fret now, don't ye!" and
+when that did not make him stop crying, she said he was a bad boy to
+make such a work about nothing. When she was a girl, nobody had frail
+trade like that, all painted and gaudy, to play with; a bit of an
+oyster-shell or a crab's claw was enow for them. He had got into such a
+caddle as never was too!
+
+So she began to shake up his couch, not in the least guessing how she
+was hurting and jarring his poor hip; and when he cried out and tried to
+drive her away, she thought it was all naughtiness, and declared that he
+was such a bad boy that she should go away and leave him to himself.
+
+The Lees dined at one, and work did not begin till two; so Amy had a
+good half-hour to spend on the little boy before she was wanted again.
+
+"Going to see Ted, be ye?" said Mrs. Rowe, as she stood at her door,
+while Amy opened the wicket. "A proper fractious little to-ad he be,
+upon my word an' honour! They do spile children in them hospitals, so as
+one can't do nothing with 'em."
+
+Amy looked at Mrs. Rowe, a very clean woman, but with a face and fists
+that looked as if they had been cut out of the toughest part of an old
+pollard ash, and a mouth that shut up like the snap of a gin. "Poor
+little fellow!" said Amy, and in she went.
+
+She was on her knees at once by the poor little boy, coaxing him and
+comforting him, and feeding him with some of the stew that Aunt
+Charlotte had kept warm for him. Then he told how Polly had taken away
+his horse and his train and broken them. Amy looked about, and
+presently found the wheel. A little hooking together was all the repair
+the train wanted, and Edwin was soon happy with it; while, as to the
+horse, he was past Amy's present mending, but she would take it home,
+and next time father had out the glue-pot she would put on the head.
+
+Then Amy brought out a little book with the early Bible history in
+pictures. She showed Edwin one every day when she came, and told him
+about it whenever he did not know the story before, or helped him to
+enter a little more into it. She was surprised sometimes to find that he
+had carried notions away from school even when she had thought him only
+dull and giddy. Then he was pleased to say over the hymns he had learnt
+in the infant school, and to talk a little about it. Amy was quite
+surprised to find how his mind had grown since he had been ill, and how
+pleased he was to be taught a little verse of prayer to say when he was
+in pain.
+
+She made him quite comfortable, filled up his mug of water, which the
+other children had upset, put some primroses in a cup where he could
+look at them, wrote a copy on his slate, and ruled some lines, caught
+the cat and put her before him, found the place in his easy story-book,
+and left him with a kiss, promising to come again to-morrow.
+
+It was very pleasant to be the bright spot in that poor little life; and
+Amy that afternoon stitched into little Miss Hilda's tucks, to the whirr
+of her machine, a whole pensive castle in the air about the dear little
+fellow who was not long for this world, and whose pillow was cheered and
+his soul trained for Paradise by his dear teacher, who came day by day
+to lead him in the path to Heaven. The tears came into her eyes at the
+thought of how beautiful and touching it would all be--how she would
+lay a wreath of white roses on his coffin, and----
+
+"What are you winking about, Amy? Go nearer the window if you want more
+light," said Aunt Rose, in a brisk, business-like voice, not at all like
+her dreams.
+
+Amy was glad to move, feeling a little ashamed of being detected in
+crying beforehand about her own good works; and as she approached the
+window, she looked out over the lemon-plant and exclaimed--"There's Miss
+Manners!"
+
+Miss Manners was really coming into the shop, and her little Skye
+terrier was already running on into the work-room, for he was great
+friends with Amy; he sniffed about, sat up, and gave his paw, and let
+her show off his tricks while his mistress was talking to Aunt
+Charlotte.
+
+Then she came on, nodded kindly a little greeting to each as they all
+rose, and said that she had been thinking that it would be a good thing
+for all the teachers to meet for half an hour before evensong on Fridays
+and look over their Sunday work together, so as to make it chime
+together. She said she found it was done at Ellerby, and was very
+helpful to all; and perhaps, when he had time, Mr. Somers would come in
+and help them. If they looked over the subjects beforehand, they could
+note the difficulties, and then she could refer to books, or ask Mr.
+Somers.
+
+Amy and Jessie both uttered some thanks, and Aunt Rose observed that it
+was very kind in Miss Dora, and that it would be very nice for the
+girls. Florence did not speak, but they saw her face and the gesture of
+her foot, and when Miss Lee walked out with the lady through the garden,
+Florence broke out--
+
+"Well, how fond some folks are of being put to school, to be sure!"
+
+"'Tisn't school," said Amy, "it is reading with Miss Manners in her
+drawing-room."
+
+"O yes; she makes you think yourselves ladies just to keep on grinding
+you at the teaching for ever; but I likes my fun when my work's done. I
+don't wonder at Amy Lee--she knows nothing better than sitting poked up
+and prim in Miss Manners's room; but for you, Jessie Hollis, who have
+seen a bit of the world, I should have thought you'd have more spirit
+than not even to be let to teach half a dozen dirty children without
+having your instructions."
+
+Here Miss Lee returned, and Florence applied herself to tacking in the
+lining again, while Jessie muttered to herself, "If I'm to teach them at
+all, I'd rather do it properly."
+
+Jessie really wished it. Perhaps the notion of seeing the inside of Miss
+Manners's drawing-room made it doubly pleasant, for Jessie had eyes that
+really could not help taking note of everything, though there was no
+harm in that when she kept them in due control. She had been in the
+dining-room before, and she hoped much that the class would be in the
+other room, though she was half ashamed of caring.
+
+Grace came home better satisfied on Tuesday, because her patterns had
+been much appreciated, though she still said the reading worrited her,
+and Naomi Norris gave herself airs.
+
+Jessie and Amy, however, went together on Friday, and found Margaret
+Roller, the pupil teacher, and Miss Pemberton, an elderly farmer's
+daughter, who always taught the little ones on Sunday, were ready there,
+and in the drawing-room.
+
+How pretty it was, with fresh delicate soft pink and white cretonne
+covers, and curtains worked with--was it really a series of old nursery
+tales? And coloured tiles, with Aesop's fables round the fireplace,
+pictures, books, and pretty things that all looked as if they had a
+history. Jessie's bright eyes took note of all in a flash, and then she
+tried to command them. Miss Manners gave them all their greeting,
+settled them all comfortably, and then began by reading to them a short
+paper in a little book upon the spirit of the whole Sunday, asking them
+in turn to look out and read the texts referred to, which Margaret and
+Amy did with a rapidity that astonished Jessie.
+
+Once she lost the thread in wondering what was looking out of a
+half-opened basket; but she caught herself up, and found that there was
+infinitely more connection and meaning in the passages appointed for the
+Sunday than she had ever guessed.
+
+Then Miss Manners asked whether they had any questions to ask; Margaret
+had one or two, which sounded very hard to Jessie, and she would never
+have thought of. It was the Fifth Sunday in Lent for which they were
+preparing, and they were respecting the unusually long and difficult
+Gospel for the day. Margaret wanted to know whether the words "By whom
+do your sons cast them out?" really meant that devils were actually cast
+out by the Jews. Miss Manners thought they were, and she looked out, and
+showed Margaret, a very curious account of the seal and sacred words of
+exorcism which were supposed to come from Solomon; but she advised the
+teachers not to dwell much on this branch of the subject, but to draw
+out most the portion about the strong man armed, and the warning against
+the return of Satan to the soul whence he had been once driven out.
+
+Then Jessie observed that she had not thought such things happened in
+these days, and Miss Manners had to explain to her how the possession
+then permitted was here treated as an allegory to all times, of the
+evil once cast off returning again if not resolutely excluded by prayer
+and a strong purpose blessed by the grace of God.
+
+It soon became plain to Jessie that she was ignorant of much which the
+others knew quite well, and when the Church bell began to chime, and all
+rose to go, she obtained a moment in which to say, with something like a
+tear in her eye--
+
+"Indeed, Miss Manners, I ought not to have undertaken it. I see I am not
+fit to teach."
+
+"I do not think you can tell without a longer trial," was the answer,
+kindly given.
+
+"But I am so ignorant!" said Jessie. "There is so much in these things
+that I never thought of, and the others seem to know all about it."
+
+"It has been their regular Sunday school round for years," said Miss
+Manners, "so it would be strange if they did not. But perhaps you will
+do all the better for coming to it fresh; and I am sure you are willing
+to take pains and prepare."
+
+"Yes," said Jessie, slowly, "if----You'll excuse me, Miss Manners,
+but----"
+
+"Please say it, Jessie," said the lady; "or shall I say it for you? This
+asking idle children very simple questions does not seem to you to be
+spiritual enough to be doing much good?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am, if you will excuse me. I thought there was to be more
+expounding of Scripture."
+
+"We must do what we can to get the children to attend to," said Miss
+Manners. "Even if we could get them to sit still while we expounded, I
+am afraid they would not attend or take in what we said. Nothing is of
+use with such young things but keeping them on the alert with
+questions, and trying to keep up their attention by being alive with
+them ourselves. We must try to put into them the sense of God's love to
+them, of their own duty, and so on; but rather by the tone of our
+questions about the lessons they learn than by discoursing long to them.
+You can only fill a little narrow-mouthed pitcher with a few drops at a
+time put right in. If you pour a great stream over it, most will splash
+over, and very little go in. I am afraid the children were tiresome last
+Sunday. It is their nature always to try their strength with a new
+teacher; but if you are firm and gentle, and show them that you _will_
+be minded, and keep them interested, they will soon be manageable. Then,
+Jessie, there is good hope that you may be sowing good seed, though you
+and I may not always see the fruit here, and it is nearly sure to be
+long before we can even trace the green blade."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE TROUSSEAU.
+
+
+MISS MANNERS'S words stayed with Jessie. She had plenty of sense and
+spirit, as well as a real wish to do right, and a yearning to spread the
+great Light round her. To be sure, the going to some mission in a
+dreadfully ignorant and wicked place would have seemed more like a good
+work than just taking a class who would be taught and cared for even
+without her help.
+
+But she could see that if she could not keep these tidy little trained
+children in order, she would not have much chance with the street Arabs
+she had read of.
+
+She got on much better the next Sunday. She kept the children interested
+almost all the time, all except the two lowest, who were determined to
+chatter till she made one stand on each side of her, and then one of
+them, Emma Lott, chose to howl till Miss Manners came to see what was
+the matter; but she did not get much by that, for she was only told that
+she was very naughty not to mind Miss Hollis, and desired to stop crying
+directly, which she did; and then Miss Manners asked Miss Hollis to be
+so kind as not to take away her ticket, if she would try to behave well
+for the rest of the day.
+
+Once more Lily Bell was so kind as to inform "teacher" that Susan said
+"she didn't care, not for she." To which Jessie coolly answered that she
+hoped Susan would soon learn to care for being a good girl, taking care
+not to look the least mortified, so that the information fell very
+flat. After that she had no more trouble with sauciness from the
+children; she began to find that Susan was clever and bright, and that
+Kate May and Lucy Elwood were very nice little maidens, who seemed to
+care to be good. They brought her flowers, told her funny little bits of
+news about baby beginning to walk, and mother going to Ellerby, and she
+found the time spent at school a very pleasant part of her Sunday; while
+as to the hours of preparation with Miss Manners, she enjoyed them so
+much that it was quite a blank if that lady had any engagement to
+prevent her from receiving her little party of teachers.
+
+Jessie found herself learning much more than she taught. Her quick
+nature could not but look into everything thoroughly, and when she had
+been once shown how to throw all her mind as well as her soul into the
+study of the Bible and Prayer-book, she found ever new delight in them.
+She began to find it helped her to pray with her understanding, as well
+as with her spirit at Church; to care more for her prayers at home, and
+to feel more on the times of the Holy Communion. She made her last
+year's hat serve again with a fresh tulle trimming, that she might buy
+herself a "Teacher's Bible," and not worry her mother and Grace any more
+by disturbing the big one, since they thought it honouring such a Bible
+to let it alone.
+
+Mrs. Hollis did read the Psalms and one Lesson every day. She said she
+had once promised Amy Lee, aunt to the present Amy, and she had hardly
+ever missed doing so.
+
+But Grace had not time. Just after Whitsuntide the daughter of a very
+rich farmer in the neighbourhood was engaged to be married, and wanted a
+quantity of fine work to be done for her, making underlinen and
+embroidering marks to handkerchiefs.
+
+She came with her mother to offer the work to Miss Lee, giving six weeks
+for it, but it was more than Aunt Rose thought right to undertake in the
+time. She said she could not get it done without disappointing several
+persons, and that she was very sorry, but that she could only undertake
+two sets of the things in the time.
+
+Mrs. Robson, the mother, was vexed and half angry. She said she hated
+common shop-work, and ready-made things, and she had taken a fancy to
+what she had seen of Miss Lee's work. She even offered to increase the
+payment, but Rose Lee stood firm. She said there was no one at hand whom
+she could hire and entrust with such work, and that she could not feel
+it right to undertake it, as it would only lead to breaking her
+engagements.
+
+"O, very well; I see you don't care to oblige me," said the lady,
+twirling off with her very tight skirts, and whisking up a train like a
+fish's tail. "No, I will not break the set. I am not accustomed to
+refusals."
+
+And off the two ladies drove, and Jessie told the story at home with a
+great deal of spirit.
+
+"Now that's just like Rose Lee," said Grace. "She won't make a bit of
+exertion for her own good!"
+
+"Well," said Jessie, "you know we should have to work awfully hard if
+she took it in hand."
+
+"I suppose she would have paid you for extra hours," said Grace sharply.
+
+"Miss Rose said it was the way to ruin a girl's health to set her to do
+such a lot of work," said Jessie.
+
+"And quite right too," put in her mother. "I knew a girl who was
+apprenticed to a dressmaker, and sat up five nights when they had two
+black jobs one after the other, and that girl's eyes never was the same
+again!"
+
+"Besides," added Jessie, "there's so much in hand."
+
+"Well, it might not do to offend Mrs. or Miss Manners, but--"
+
+"O, it is not that! The children's things were sent home yesterday. I
+wish you could have seen them, they were loves; and Miss Manners has got
+a new dress from London. She let Miss Lee see it, and take the pattern
+of the trimming. No, but Mrs. Drew has sent her Swiss cambric to be made
+up for Miss Alice, and Miss Pemberton has a new carmelite to be
+finished, and there are some dresses for the maids at the hall, all
+promised by Midsummer day."
+
+"Pooh! Customers like that can wait."
+
+"I don't see that it is a bit more right to disappoint them than any one
+else," said Jessie sturdily.
+
+"Old Miss Pemberton, to be compared with a lady like that!" exclaimed
+Grace.
+
+"It doesn't make much odds as to right or wrong," said Jessie, "but I
+don't think Mrs. Robson is much of a lady, to judge by the way she gave
+her orders and flounced off in a huff."
+
+"A lady," said Mrs. Hollis, contemptuously, "I should think not. Why,
+her father kept the 'White Feathers' at Ellerby; and Robson, he rose up
+just by speculations, as they call them; but I've seen him a little
+greengrocer's errand-boy, with a face like a dirty potato."
+
+"They can pay, any way," said Grace. "Folks say Robson could buy out our
+squire, ay, and my lord himself, if he chose."
+
+"And I'm sure," said Jessie, "she and her daughter had clothes on that
+must cost forty or fifty pounds apiece. Such a fur cloak, lined with
+ermine; and the young lady's jacket was sealskin, trimmed ever so deep
+with sable, and a hummingbird in her hat. They say little Miss Hilda saw
+her and cried for pity of the poor dear little bird."
+
+"Well, I'll tell you what," said Grace, "I'll set off this minute to
+Newcome Park, and see if I can't get the work, or at least some of it.
+You and I can do plain work as well any day as Rose Lee, Jessie."
+
+"Yes," said Jessie, "but I have my time at Miss Lee's all the same."
+
+"Of course, child; but there are the evenings, and I can sit to it while
+mother minds the shop."
+
+"Don't undertake more than you can manage, Grace," said Mrs. Hollis.
+
+"Trust me for that, mother. You can wash up, Jessie; I can get there
+before they go to dress for dinner. It is a capital thing! It will just
+make up for that bad debt of Long's, and help us to get in a real
+genteel stock of summer goods."
+
+Grace managed the house, and her mother, who durst not say a word when
+she was set on a thing; and as to Jessie, her sister always treated her
+as a rather naughty, idle child.
+
+The girl had struggled hotly against this, but it had always ended in
+getting into such a temper, and saying such fierce and violent things,
+that she had been much grieved and ashamed of herself, and now felt it
+better to let Grace have her way than to get into a dispute which was
+sure to make her do wrong.
+
+But when Grace, as neat as a new pin, had tripped out of the house, Mrs.
+Hollis and Jessie looked at one another, as if they had a pretty severe
+task set them.
+
+"Well, I think we could have managed without," said Mrs. Hollis, "but to
+be sure it is as well to be on the safe side; though I'd rather be
+without the money than be at all the trouble and hurry this work will
+be!"
+
+"I am sure I had," said Jessie. "I wish I had said nothing about it.
+Grace can't bear to hear of anything going that she has not got."
+
+"Any way," said Mrs. Hollis, "you shall not be put upon, Jessie, after
+all your work at Miss Lee's. You shall not be made to sit at your needle
+all the evening. It is not good for your health, and so I shall tell
+Grace."
+
+Jessie thanked her mother, but had little hope that she would be able to
+hold out against one so determined as her sister. Neither mother nor
+daughter would have broken her heart if Grace's application had come too
+late, but no such thing! It had been dark about an hour when she was
+driven up to the door in a dog-cart, out of which huge rolls of linen
+were lifted, enough, as it seemed, to stock the shop. Grace shook hands
+with the smart groom who had driven her, thanked him, and came in in
+high spirits.
+
+Mrs. Robson had been most gracious! She said she had feared being
+obliged to put up with mere warehouse work, and that she could not bear;
+but country people were so lazy and disobliging. It was not what she was
+used to.
+
+Grace had been taken up into the young lady's own room, and oh! what she
+had to tell about tall cheval glasses, and ivory-backed brushes, and
+rose-coloured curtains, and marble-topped washhand-stands, and a bed and
+wardrobe of inlaid wood, with beautiful birds and flowers, and
+gold-topped bottles and boxes, and downy chairs! The description was
+enough to last a week, and indeed it did, for fresh details came out
+continually. It almost made Jessie jealous for Miss Manners. Once when
+she had been caught in a sudden shower and arrived wet through she had
+been taken up to Miss Manners's bed-room to take off her boots and put
+on slippers.
+
+And there was only a plain little iron bed, uncurtained, and the floor
+was bare except for rugs at the hearth and bed-side, and the furniture
+was nothing but white dimity. The chimney ornaments and the
+washhand-stand looked like those in a nursery--as indeed they well
+might, for they had belonged to Miss Dora nearly all her life; they all
+had stories belonging to them, were keepsakes from dear friends, and she
+would not have given one, no, not the shell cat with an ear off, nor the
+little picture made of coloured sand, for Miss Robson's finest gilded
+box, unless indeed that had come in the same way.
+
+And there were two prints on the walls, very grave and beautiful, which
+made one feel like being in Church, and so did the illuminated texts,
+though all were not equally well done, some being painted by her little
+nieces. Jessie had a feeling in her mind that there was something finer
+and nobler in not making one's own nest so very splendid and luxurious,
+but she knew Grace would laugh at the notion, so she said nothing of
+the difference, while her mother said, "Dear, dear!" and "Think of
+that!" at each new bit of magnificence she heard of.
+
+Grace had her patterns and materials, and the fineness of them, and
+beauty of the lace provided for the trimming, were quite delightful to
+look at.
+
+The payment was to be very handsome, and Grace felt secure of carrying
+through the work in time, with the help of her mother and sister.
+
+"You shall have your share, Jessie," she said. "See, here are some sweet
+French cambric handkerchiefs to be marked in embroidery. 'I have a
+sister who can embroider beautifully,' says I, and they just jumped at
+it. 'Nina' is the name to be worked in the corners."
+
+"Oh, I like embroidery," cried Jessie. "Thank you, Grace."
+
+"There's six dozen," said Grace, "and you'll be able to do one a day.
+Four pence a letter. Why it will be quite a little fortune to you," said
+Grace, overpowered with her own generosity; and Jessie on her side
+thought of the many things 4_l._ 16_s._ would do for her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+STITCH, STITCH, STITCH.
+
+
+IT must be confessed that Mrs. Hollis and Jessie had a hard time of it
+while those wedding clothes were being made!
+
+There was no time for anything, certainly not for cooking. They ate the
+cold Sunday joint as long as it lasted, and lived the rest of the week
+on bread and cheese, and Australian meat now and then.
+
+Grace got up before four every morning, and there was not much peace in
+bed for any one after that.
+
+Of course the shop had to be minded, and that Mrs. Hollis did, but she
+was expected to be at her needle at every spare moment; and for the
+needful cleaning and rougher work, Grace got a woman for a couple of
+hours who came cheap, because she did not bear a very good character.
+Mrs. Hollis did not much like having her about, but, as Grace said, one
+or other of them always had an eye upon her, and she was only there for
+a couple of hours in the morning.
+
+It was lucky kettles could boil themselves, or there might not even have
+been tea, and as to going to Mrs. Somers's working parties, Grace
+declared it to be impossible.
+
+"I've got something else to do," she said, decidedly. "The lady can't
+expect me to stand in my own light."
+
+And when she saw Jessie on Friday evening put away her work and fetch
+her hat and books, she cried out against such idling, and said it must
+be given up.
+
+"No," said Jessie. "I can't give up my Church and my preparation with
+Miss Manners."
+
+"Nonsense! You see I've given up my working party."
+
+"Yes; but I can't give up mine," said Jessie. "Oh, Grace, we thought so
+much about trying to do what we could."
+
+"And so I am!" said Grace. "No one can say I am not doing my duty to my
+family, and that's better than throwing away my time on a lot of
+beggarly folk that don't deserve nothing. And you ought to know better,
+Jessie."
+
+"I must have my lesson prepared," said she in return.
+
+"As if you couldn't teach that there Bell girl without going to read
+with Miss Manners first! You'll never have those handkerchiefs done!"
+
+"I did two letters extra this morning," said Jessie.
+
+"Ah, that's very fine, but if you get one of your headaches----"
+
+The sound of that word alarmed Mrs. Hollis. Jessie had had a bad illness
+about a year ago, and the mother could not part with her anxiety about
+her. In she came, with the tea-cup she was washing in her hand.
+
+"Has Jessie got a headache?" she inquired.
+
+"Oh no, mother, thank you. Grace is only putting a case."
+
+"Yes; I am asking her what she thinks will become of the work if she is
+to go and take her pleasure whenever she likes. She talks of working
+extra; but supposing she had a headache, she'd be sorry she had thrown
+away her time."
+
+"Dear, dear," said Mrs. Hollis; "'tis the very way to make her have a
+headache to keep her poor nose to the grindstone. The doctor, he says to
+me, 'She've had a shock, and she'll require care, and not to be
+overstrained.' And I tell you, Grace, I won't have Jessie put upon, and
+kept muzzing over her needle like a blackamoor slave, without a taste of
+fresh air. So run away, Jessie, and get your walk."
+
+"Thank you, mother."
+
+And Jessie, who did not feel bound to obey her sister, ran lightly off,
+hoping poor mother would not be very fiercely talked at by Grace. She
+herself was clear that work undertaken for God's sake should not be
+dropped when one's own gain began to clash with it; while Grace, who had
+always been held up as the model, helpful good daughter, plainly
+thought, "working for one's family," and securing something extra, was
+such a reason as to make it a sort of duty to throw over all she had
+taken up under the spur of that sermon in the spring. Jessie had no
+headache, but she was weary, vexed, and teased, and
+
+          "Stitch, stitch, stitch,
+           Seam and gusset and band,"
+
+rang in her ears, so that she specially felt rested and soothed by the
+calm and quiet of Miss Manners's pretty room, with the open windows and
+the scent of flowers coming in from the garden.
+
+The subject was next Sunday's Gospel, about the Great Supper and the
+excuse-making guests. Miss Manners read out part of Archbishop Trench's
+comment on the Parable before she talked to the teachers about what they
+were to say to their classes; and Jessie felt deeply that to let herself
+be engrossed by this undertaking, so as to allow no time for her
+religious duties, would be only too like the guests who went "one to his
+farm, and another to his merchandise." She was advised to make it a
+lesson to her class against false or insufficient excuses, such as
+saying they were late at school because mother wanted them to take a
+message, when they had dawdled all the way instead of hastening to
+school. Miss Manners lent the volume of Miss Edgeworth's _Rosamond_ to
+Jessie, to read the chapter on Excuses to her girls, so as to bring home
+the lesson, though she was to carry it higher, and put them in mind that
+if they put their duties aside for these little things now, they would
+be learning to forget their Heavenly Master for earthly matters, and
+would never taste of His supper.
+
+It made Jessie doubly and trebly determined that she would not take a
+lie-a-bed on Sunday morning to make up for loss of rest before, and thus
+miss the early Celebration on her monthly Sunday. Indeed, she felt drawn
+to come oftener, if it would not be presuming.
+
+She came home from Church in the summer twilight, when even Grace could
+not work, and was standing a moment at the door before lighting the
+lamp.
+
+"Well, miss, I hope you have wasted enough daylight," she said.
+
+"I hope it wasn't quite wasted," said Jessie, cheerfully. "I shall work
+ever so much quicker for the rest I have had."
+
+And she was as good as her word, and spent an hour in her pleasant
+embroidery of the pretty white letters of the name which she really
+delighted in doing, only she would have liked a fresh pattern instead of
+making all the seventy-two Ninas exactly alike.
+
+She was at work before half-past six the next day, and had three more
+letters done before it was time to go to Miss Lee's, where it was a busy
+day of finishing work; and when at three o'clock the last stitch was put
+to the dress that had been made out of Mrs. Drew's cambric, Miss Lee
+asked Jessie to carry it home, suspecting that the walk would be good
+for her.
+
+It was rather hot, but Jessie did enjoy the lanes, with their flowery
+banks, and the sweet smells of the hay, and she felt much brightened
+and refreshed. When she came near the house, she saw some one sitting in
+a basket-chair in the porch, and knew that it was Miss Needwood, a poor,
+sickly orphan relation of Mrs. Drew's, who was always trying situations
+as nursery governess, or reader, or the like, and leaving them because
+her health would not serve; and then she had no home to go to but
+Chalk-pit Farm. She was not so much above the Hollises as the farmer's
+own family, and was always friendly with them. She came to meet Jessie,
+shook hands with her, and explained that Mrs. Drew had been summoned to
+speak about some poultry, but would return in a moment if Miss Hollis
+would sit down.
+
+"Are you stopping here for long?" asked Jessie.
+
+"I don't know," said the poor girl, sadly; "I hoped I was settled in a
+nice situation; but my asthma was bad there, and the lady found it out,
+and it made her nervous, so here I am again. Mr. Drew, he is kind, and
+says I may make myself useful with teaching the children; but oh, dear!
+I don't know enough for that."
+
+"I thought you had gone out for a nursery governess."
+
+"Yes"--the tears came in her eyes;--"but I'll never try again. The elder
+young ladies made game of my French, and said I didn't spell as well as
+the little nursery girl. And it was true, Miss Hollis. I tried being a
+sewing-maid last, though Mrs. Drew didn't want folk to know it; but, you
+see, I hadn't health for that. They are very good here, and will keep
+me; but I am nothing but a burthen. If I could but hear of something to
+do--if only to keep me in clothes. I can do fancy-work, if I could get
+any."
+
+"Can you embroider?" asked Jessie.
+
+Miss Needwood took out her pocket-handkerchief, where her initials, H.
+N., were beautifully worked. Jessie had admired her own work, but this
+was much better. It was just such an N as she wanted, and she
+exclaimed--
+
+"If you would be so kind as to lend me one of those for a pattern, I
+should be so much obliged."
+
+"Do you embroider?" asked Miss Needwood. "I wish you could tell me if
+there is any shop at Ellerby or Carchester that would employ me; I
+should be so much happier."
+
+Here Mrs. Drew came back, and looked over the dress which was to be sent
+to her daughter at her boarding-school, and thanked Jessie, and gave her
+the money for Miss Lee.
+
+Miss Needwood had fetched the handkerchief, and Jessie took leave and
+walked home, thinking over what shops might possibly employ the poor
+girl. What a pity she had not those handkerchiefs to do, and why should
+she not do some of them?
+
+Oh, Grace would never consent. Besides, Jessie had spent her 4_l._
+16_s._ in fancy already on the Offertory, savings bank, a present for
+mother, a pair of spectacles for old Dame Wall, a pretty new dress and
+hat for herself. Oh no, she must work on; it was such pretty work, and
+Grace would scorn her so if she gave up any part of it.
+
+Jessie came home to find Mrs. Hollis in all the hard work and worry of a
+Saturday evening, alone in the shop, with people waiting and getting
+cross. She had to hasten behind the counter and help as fast as she
+could. It was well that the Lees had given her a cup of tea when she
+brought in the money, for there was no quiet for more than an hour, and
+then the fire was found to have gone out while Grace was putting in
+gathers. Moreover, Jessie saw, with dismay, that the beefsteak-pie,
+which was to serve for the morrow, was not even made.
+
+"Oh, I'll do that to-morrow morning," said Grace.
+
+And when Jessie proceeded to tack in her clean collar and cuffs, Grace
+called out, raising her hot face from her work, that they might be
+pinned in on Sunday morning; it was only waste of time to do so now.
+
+"I don't think that is using Sunday quite well," said Jessie.
+
+"Well, I never heard there was any harm in sticking in a pin of a
+Sunday! Come, sit down, do, and don't keep fiddling about. You'll be
+behind with those handkerchiefs. Here, mother, you can finish this seam
+before dark."
+
+"The place is in such a caddle," said poor Mrs. Hollis, looking ruefully
+round at her kitchen, which certainly did not wear at all its usual
+Saturday evening's aspect. "That Jenny Simkins, she do so stabble in
+and out, she only wants some one to clean after her."
+
+"Oh, well, I'll see to that," said Grace, "when it gets too dark for
+work. One must put up with a little for such a chance as this."
+
+Jessie felt that her poor mother was putting up with more than a little,
+as she saw her sit down with a sigh and try to thread her needle by the
+window. Jessie went across and did it for her, and put back the muslin
+blind so as to let in more light; then sat down to finish the "na" of
+her sixth Nina, rather wearily, and with an uncomfortable thought that
+Miss Needwood's satin-stitch looked better than her own.
+
+Little "n" was done before the twilight tidying, which did not amount to
+much, for Grace soon lighted the lamp; but Jessie, in putting up the
+shop shutters, made the arm, which had once been crushed, tremble so
+much that she could not work without pricking her finger, and Mrs.
+Hollis really could not see. So Grace let them both go to bed, and
+Jessie half waked to hear her bustling about, and coming up herself just
+after the clock struck twelve. She would not have set a stitch on any
+account after that!
+
+Jessie was up early enough to light the fire, and set out the breakfast
+things, and put on the kettle, while both her mother and Grace were
+still in bed. She had a peaceful, happy time then, but otherwise she had
+never known such an uncomfortable Sunday.
+
+Mrs. Hollis was down when she came back, but was fretting over the very
+large bit that had gone out of the cheese. Jessie thought they had eaten
+it for want of meat; her mother suspected Jenny Simkins. Then she had
+not been allowed time to copy out her accounts into the book, and there
+had been a great puzzle between a three and a five on the slate last
+night, which seemed to have been worrying her all night in her dreams;
+and the uncleaned look of the house vexed her. She was tired and not
+like herself, and Jessie only left her for school and church on hearing
+Grace's step on the stairs.
+
+At school she could forget all about it in the interest of teaching, but
+the worry returned when her mother's place was empty at the beginning of
+the service; and when Mrs. Hollis did come posting in at the end of the
+_Venite_, she was so hot and panting that she had to sit down and fan
+herself with her pocket-handkerchief all through the Psalms, and Jessie
+even feared she might be going to faint.
+
+"Oh dear," Mrs. Hollis mourned, when they came out of church, "she had
+never been so upset before, but she had been so put about to get off,
+with none of her things ready, and she was _that_ tired and sleepy she
+had not heard a word of the sermon. Grace really had undertaken too
+much. The house was in such a mess there was no sitting down quiet and
+respectable, and there was threepence in the till that would not be
+accounted for, and she was sure that the cheese was going too fast." She
+fretted all the way home, and Jessie could not comfort her, by promising
+to look over the accounts the first thing on Monday.
+
+However, on coming home they found the whole house tidied, dinner laid,
+the pie made and just ready to come out of the Dutch oven, and the
+accounts balanced and written out fairly. Grace was just finishing the
+arraying herself in full Sunday trim outside, but how was it with the
+inner Sunday raiment of her heart?
+
+She did nothing but talk about "seam and gusset and band," and how fast
+she was getting on, and how good the linen was, and what sort was the
+best, till Jessie thought she might almost as well have been sewing all
+day as with her thoughts running on nothing else.
+
+When Jessie went to afternoon school, both Mrs. Hollis and Grace were so
+tired that the one went to sleep in her chair, and the other on her bed;
+and thus Jessie found them on her return.
+
+Poor mother! how weary and worn her face looked after this week of
+worry. The sight of it settled Jessie's mind. She went up softly to take
+off her things, and as she was doing so, Grace awoke. Jessie went up to
+her and showed her Miss Needwood's cipher.
+
+"Bless me! whose is that? It is real genteel," said Grace.
+
+"It is Miss Needwood's at Chalk-pit Farm."
+
+"What! that poor helpless thing that never can keep a situation! Did you
+get it for a pattern, Jessie?"
+
+"Yes," said Jessie; "she lent it to me."
+
+"It is beautiful," said Grace, examining it minutely. "You ought to work
+like that, Jessie."
+
+"I would if I could," said Jessie, "and I mean to try; but, Grace, I
+shall only finish this first dozen. I shall send the other five dozen to
+Bessie Needwood. She is in great want of work, and will do them much
+better than I."
+
+"Well I never!" cried Grace. "I never thought you'd turn lazy, and give
+up what you had undertaken--when I had asked for the handkerchiefs on
+purpose for you, because I thought a little pocket money would come in
+convenient!"
+
+"So it would. It was very kind of you, Grace; but Miss Needwood will do
+them better than I."
+
+"Not than you if you chose to take the pains and trouble."
+
+"No," said Jessie, "if I don't hurry them too quick to try to do those
+finest stitches, I sha'n't have time to do them at all, in these after
+hours of mine."
+
+"Well, that you should choose to confess yourself not able to do as well
+as a poor dozing thing like that! It's all laziness."
+
+"No, that it is not," said Jessie, rather hotly. "I thought if those
+were off my hands I could help you, and then mother need not have any of
+this work to do, or be so driven and put about."
+
+"You don't expect to be paid for any part of mother's work," said Grace,
+with some sharpness. "I've got my own use for that in the business."
+
+"No, I don't!" and Jessie went suddenly off in a little bit of temper
+for which she was sorry afterwards, wishing she had said that her real
+reason--besides the helping Miss Needwood--was the hope to save her
+mother from being over driven, and not to have another Sunday so
+cumbered with worldly matters.
+
+Grace came down to tea grumbling, and appealing to her mother about
+Jessie's laziness; and Mrs. Hollis, for whose sake the girl had resigned
+five-sixths of her hoped-for gain, was inclined to be vexed at any of
+the work going out of the family, or her Jessie allowing herself to be
+beaten.
+
+It was very vexatious, and Jessie was glad when Uncle Andrew dropped in
+to tea, and to change the current of their thoughts.
+
+She was to stay at home to guard the house while the others went to
+evensong, and this gave her the quiet opportunity of packing up five
+dozen handkerchiefs, and writing a note to send with them to Bessie
+Needwood the first thing in the morning, by any child who came early to
+the shop.
+
+Then she felt much more at ease, and was able to have a comfortable
+study of her next Sunday's Gospel and its references, in case she should
+be too busy on the week days; and so she was peaceful and refreshed, and
+able to enjoy a quiet little wander in the twilight garden with her
+hymn-book. This lasted till the others came home, brim full of reports
+they had picked up about the splendour of the coming wedding. The
+gentleman, Mr. Holdaway, was staying at Newcorn Park, and, what was
+more, he had sent his horses and grooms down to the Manners Arms,
+because the stables at the Chequers were not well kept.
+
+The head groom had actually been at Church, and looked quite the
+gentleman, though to be sure he did stare about wonderfully.
+
+Mrs. Hollis shook her head, and said no good came of that sort of folk.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+WANDERING EYES.
+
+
+"I ASSURE you he said he had never seen a place with more pretty young
+ladies in it."
+
+"Who?" said Jessie, coming suddenly into the light closet of the
+work-room, where Florence Cray was taking off her hat, and Amy Lee
+seemed to be helping her.
+
+"Why, Mr. Wingfield, Mr. Holdaway's head groom, who has come over with
+another man and a boy, and three of the loveliest horses you ever did
+see."
+
+"Oh, yes, I heard," said Jessie; "and how he stared about at Church! He
+ought to be ashamed of himself."
+
+"Oh! that's what Grace says, of course," said Florence; "and she's a
+regular old maid. She needn't fear that he'll stare at her."
+
+Wherewith both Florence and Amy giggled, and before Jessie's hot answer
+was out of her mouth, one of the aunts called out--
+
+"Girls, girls, what are you doing? No gossiping there."
+
+Florence came out looking cross, and observing in a marked manner that
+Miss Fuller, at Ellerby, always spoke of her young ladies.
+
+"I like using right names," said Aunt Rose in her decided voice.
+
+Florence was silenced for the time, but at the dinner hour she contrived
+to get Amy alone. Jessie was in haste to get home to see if there were
+an answer from Miss Needwood, and also to try to get enough sewing done
+to pacify Grace, and purchase a little leisure for her mother. And
+Florence, instead of going home, stood with Amy, who had sauntered into
+the garden to refresh herself and gather some parsley.
+
+"I assure you, Amy, he was quite struck. He said yours was such a style
+that he would hardly believe me when I said you belonged to Mr. Lee, the
+baker. It was the refinement, he said."
+
+"Nonsense, Florence; don't," said Amy, blushing as crimson as the rose
+she tried to gather.
+
+"I'm not talking nonsense; I never did see a poor man so smitten."
+
+"Now, Florence, you shouldn't say such things; father and aunts would
+not like it. I shall go in."
+
+"Fathers and aunts are all alike; they never do like such things.
+But----"
+
+However, Amy was safe indoors by this time, all in a glow, very much
+ashamed that such things should have been said to her, and yet not a
+little fluttered and pleased. She had been most carefully brought up
+and watched over, and she had come to the age of sixteen without hearing
+more about herself than that a young lady, who once came into the school
+with Miss Agnes Manners, said something that sounded like lovely, and
+was speedily hushed up and silenced.
+
+All the other girls thought the young lady meant Henrietta Coles, who
+was tall, with bright dark eyes, red cheeks, and black hair, under a
+round comb; but Amy had always been sure that the speaker's eyes were
+upon her, though she had been ashamed of the belief, and indeed had
+nearly forgotten all about it, till it was stirred up by Florence's
+talk.
+
+She went up to her room to smooth her hair before dinner. Yes, it was
+very nice light-brown hair, with a golden shine; and her eyes were very
+clear and blue, and her skin very white, with a rosy flush; and her
+nose was straight, and the shape was a pretty delicate one. Amy really
+did think Mr. Wingfield was right, and had better taste than the people
+who thought her a poor washy, peaky thing, as she had more than once
+heard herself called.
+
+She put her head on one side, smirked a little, half shut her eyes, and
+studied herself in different positions, till she heard one of her aunts
+on the stairs; and then, in a desperate fright lest she should be
+caught, she darted out so fast as to run against Aunt Charlotte coming
+up stairs with a basket of clean linen from the wash. There were three
+pairs of stockings rolled up on the top, and these tumbled out, and one
+pair went hop, hop, from step to step all the way down stairs, just as
+Father was coming in, and he caught it up and threw it like a ball
+straight up at his sister.
+
+The confusion drove the nonsense out of Amy's head for the present. She
+ate her dinner, and then went off as usual for her visit to little Edwin
+Smithers, carrying him only a few strawberries, as she knew he always
+had soup from the Hall on a Monday.
+
+For Edwin had not died. He had rather grown better than worse, and if
+the truth must be told, Amy had begun to get a little tired of him. He
+was not a quick child, and in this hot weather he often failed to do the
+sums or learn the verses that Amy set him.
+
+To-day he was nursing a great piece of stick-liquorice with which he had
+painted a dirty spot on the central face in the picture of the number of
+the _Chatterbox_ which she had lent him. She scolded him for it, and he
+turned sulky, and would not try to repeat his hymn, nor answer any
+questions, and looked at his book as if he had never seen one before.
+
+Amy grew angry, told him he was a naughty boy, and she should not stay
+with him nor give him any strawberries; and off she went, carrying away
+the injured _Chatterbox_, and never bethinking herself that the hot day
+and the weariness of the dull untidy room might not be the cause of the
+naughty fit, and whether it would not have been kinder and better to try
+to soothe him out of it.
+
+But instead of this she paused to hear Mrs. Rowe declare he was a bad
+'un, with a nasty sulky temper that no one could do nothing with, and
+just then she saw Florence Cray crossing the village green.
+
+"I've just been to get a little red pepper at Hollis's," she said, as
+she put her arm fondly into Amy's. "Mr. Wingfield do like something
+tasty for his breakfast, and ma is going to do him some devilled kidneys
+to-morrow morning. He is quite the gentleman in all his tastes, you
+see! I wanted Jessie to walk back with me, but they are all so terrible
+busy over that there wedding order, that she could not come till the
+last minute."
+
+"Working all through the dinner hour!" said Amy. "What a shame!"
+
+"So I say. But that Grace Hollis is a one! I wouldn't have her for my
+sister. Here, come in, Amy, I must just give mother the pepper."
+
+"No, I can't do that," said Amy, uneasily, for she knew her father would
+be displeased if she went into a public-house; though as Florence said,
+"Gracious! You needn't go near the bar. It's only the back door! As if I
+would ask you to do anything you ought not! But I suppose our house
+ain't good enough for you."
+
+"Oh! don't be angry, Florence dear, I'll come some day when I've got
+leave."
+
+"Leave indeed, at your age; but you're a poor-spirited thing, Amy, to
+be so kept down by a couple of old aunts."
+
+Amy was flurried at the displeasure, and wanted to make it up. "Oh!
+don't be offended, Florence. Look here."
+
+"Strawberries! oh my! already! Thank you," and Florence had soon
+swallowed up poor little Edwin's strawberries.
+
+"Wait here one moment then," she said, "and I'll be back with you in an
+instant."
+
+Amy stood under her parasol, trying to make the most of the small
+shelter afforded by Mr. Cray's garden hedge, and recollecting rather
+uncomfortably something she had once been told about the loitering of
+the disobedient Prophet being what brought him into temptation. But,
+having promised to wait, she could not move away, though she had to stay
+longer than she liked, especially as the children were going by to
+afternoon school, and some of her own class began to stare at her.
+
+However, at last Florence came out, quite excited. "Oh, Amy, if you'll
+only wait a minute, you'll see him come out."
+
+"I can't! I can't! Let us go," cried Amy, quite shocked and shy.
+
+"Nonsense! Poor man, he need never see you. He is just going to take the
+horses up for his master to ride out with Miss Robson. Such sweet
+horses! Mr. Holdaway gave 120 guineas for his. Think of that, Amy! Here
+now, come round the corner of the hedge, and he'll never see you."
+
+So Amy followed and peeped, very shy and frightened, like a guilty
+thing, and she did see two horses, much more beautiful than she knew,
+one ridden by a common-looking groom, the other by a very smart, well
+set-up person, with a belt round his waist. That was all she saw, for
+they were gone in a flash, and she was too uncomfortable to see much, or
+to do more than hurriedly answer Florence's exclamation--
+
+"Ain't he quite the gentleman? Bain't his horses real darlings?" before
+Jessie's voice was heard--
+
+"Why, whatever are you two doing here?"
+
+The two girls both giggled, and each pushed the other to make her tell,
+and Florence laughed out--
+
+"Oh, 'twas Amy wanted to see Mr. Wingfield pass by."
+
+"No, 'twasn't. 'Twas you," said Amy.
+
+"I don't see why you should get into a corner about it," said Jessie,
+rather gravely. "I've just met him straight upon the road, horses and
+all."
+
+"O yes, _you_!" said Florence.
+
+"Well, why not me?"
+
+"O, you know, you'll soon be an old maid like your sister."
+
+Jessie had not grown so wise as not to be nettled at this silly
+impertinent speech, but she was much more vexed to see that Florence was
+teaching Amy her own follies--Amy, who had always seemed like a pure
+little innocent wild rose-bud in its modest green leaves. So she
+answered, rather shortly--
+
+"If you mean that I don't want to be right down ridiculous, I hope I am
+an old maid."
+
+This seemed to be very funny, for Florence went off in fits of laughing,
+and kept shouldering Amy to make her see the joke, but Amy had by this
+time grown ashamed and frightened and only answered, "Don't."
+
+So the three girls went in together, and no one took any special notice
+of Amy's hot face and uncomfortable gestures. It was the first time
+since she had been a very little child that she had shrunk from her
+aunts' eyes, or feared that they should ask her questions; and the
+sense that she had been undeserving of the trust they placed in her made
+her very ill at ease, though the silly girl did not do the only thing
+that would have set her right again, and made her safer for the future.
+
+Jessie meanwhile had forgotten the little vexation. She had something to
+brighten her up in Miss Needwood's little note.
+
+It was written on pink paper, edged with blue, as if nothing could be
+too good for Jessie; and it said no words could tell how glad she was,
+and what a comfort it was to have this real work to do. "It is really
+like a ray of hope in the darkness," said poor Bessie, in her little
+thin weak writing, with a very hard steel pen.
+
+But that note warmed up Jessie's heart, although her finger was getting
+severely ploughed up with the stitching she had been doing to save her
+mother's eyes.
+
+"There was not to be an inch of machine work," Mrs. Robson had said, and
+the Hollises were people who fulfilled all they undertook.
+
+But Jessie's hour at home had helped and freshened her mother, who
+looked much less worn and worried than she had done the day before.
+Jessie felt she had done well to send away the handkerchiefs, and lessen
+the burthen Grace had taken upon the family.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+AMY'S VISITS.
+
+
+NOBODY could say any great harm of Florence Cray, or she would not have
+been bound to Miss Lee.
+
+But she was one of those silly, vulgar-minded girls who think life is
+nothing without continually chattering either to young men or about
+them. She was in no hurry to be married, for then she knew she must give
+up all her lively pastime with the lads around her. Not that she
+frequented the bar, or had anything to do with the customers--her mother
+kept her carefully from that; but she had plenty of acquaintance, and to
+her mind nothing else was so amusing. She was not pretty, and knew it
+well enough, but she was very good-natured, and free from jealousy, and
+next to diverting herself with some youth, she liked nothing so well as
+teasing other girls about them.
+
+She considered Amy Lee quite old enough and pretty enough to have a
+young man, and to begin to have some fun, and she thought all the care
+taken of the girl by her father and aunts only so much stupid old fidget
+and jealousy, which it was fun to baffle and elude. Thus she was a very
+dangerous companion for Amy, perhaps more so than a really worse person,
+who would have been more shocking and startling to Amy's sense of
+modesty and propriety. It was such a new sensation altogether to be
+always popping about and peeping to admire the handsome stranger and his
+fine horses, and then to whisk giggling out of the way, in terror lest
+they had been seen.
+
+It was more amusing than sitting by a fretful boy, trying to make him
+read and say hymns, and though conscience was half awake, it was easily
+satisfied. And then there was the pleasure of being told that she was
+admired--though Amy would not have liked it as well if she had guessed
+that Florence used to amuse herself on the other hand by telling Mr.
+Wingfield how a certain young lady admired him, and teasing him by
+declaring that, "Oh no! she could not tell him who, she should be
+nameless. Did he like best fair or dark?"
+
+So time went on, and the needlework with it. Grace Hollis's whole brain
+seemed to be turning into thread and cotton, for she was able to think
+of nothing else except what she should do with the money, when she got
+it; but she did not scold Jessie, as she had been inclined to do at
+first, for giving up the handkerchiefs, for she had begun to find that
+without her sister's help there would have been no chance of finishing,
+without overworking her mother, and neglecting the business of the shop.
+
+Indeed, as it was, when the last week came there was so much still to be
+done that she was obliged to ask Miss Needwood to come and help, which
+she was very glad to do, when she had finished the handkerchiefs most
+delicately and beautifully.
+
+Jessie gave all the time she could. She was glad to have something to
+think about, for Miss Manners was from home, so there were no readings
+before the Sundays; and her sharp eyes could not help seeing that there
+was something underhand going on between Amy and Florence--where she did
+not know whether to interfere or not.
+
+She had seen Amy and Florence come hastily round the corner of the lane,
+which had a stile into a large shady path field at the back of Mrs.
+Smithers's cottage, and Mr. Wingfield hovering about. It did not look
+well--and indeed what she would have thought nothing of in such a girl
+as Florence was a very different thing in Amy. Then stories that she
+disliked were afloat about the man. He was said to be teaching the young
+men at the Manners Arms new gambling games, and to be putting them up to
+bet on race-horses; and once she heard a very unpleasant laugh about
+very good, closely-kept girls being as ready to carry on as other folk.
+
+Once when she asked Amy after little Edwin Smithers, the answer was
+rather cross. "Oh! just as usual. He is the most tiresome fractious
+child I ever saw!"
+
+"Children are often like that when they are going to be worse," said
+Jessie.
+
+"Well," returned Amy, "I've always heard that children are most fretty
+and fussy when they are getting better."
+
+"Then I hope he is better."
+
+"O dear yes, of course he is, or he would not be here now," said Amy,
+impatiently, and getting very red.
+
+"How does he get on with his reading?"
+
+"There never was such a one for questions as you, Jessie!" cried Amy,
+getting quite cross.
+
+And as Jessie knew curiosity to be her failing, and was really trying to
+break herself of it, she was silenced.
+
+No doubt Amy was angered because her conscience was very far from being
+easy, though she never failed to pop into the Smithers's cottage every
+day, sometimes to bring the little dainties her aunts provided,
+sometimes to say a few words and begin a lesson with Edwin; but her
+heart was not in it, the boy would seldom attend, and often turned away
+his face and said "No," or began to cry; whereupon Amy told him he was
+very naughty, and marched off, excusing herself by the fact that the
+girl Polly was generally in the house, and seemed to be attending to him
+much better than she used to do.
+
+No wonder Amy was in a hurry, for Florence was waiting for her outside;
+and by and by not only Florence.
+
+It began one windy day when Amy's sunshade flew out of her hand. She ran
+after it, as it went dancing along on its spokes over the village green,
+jumping up just as she neared it, and whisking off just as if it had
+been alive, or like one of those gay butterflies and birds in allegories
+that lure the little pilgrims out of the narrow path. Alas! it was only
+too much like such a deluder.
+
+For some one came round the corner, caught the wild sunshade, and
+restored it to the owner. She was tittering and breathless, she blushed
+all over, and never raised her eyes while Mr. Wingfield hoped, in
+elegant language, that she had not fatigued herself, and paid a
+flattering compliment to the lovely colour with which exercise had
+suffused her complexion. This made her giggle and blush all the more.
+She did not know whether she liked it or not, poor silly child!
+
+She often "wished he would not;" she was in a dreadful fright whenever
+it happened, and yet the day seemed flat and tiresome and not worth
+having when he had not joined her and Florence, and walked down the path
+below Hornbeam Wood, behind Mrs. Smithers's cottage, with them.
+
+He never said or did anything to startle her. He saw she was a modest,
+well-behaved girl, and he knew how to treat such a one. He talked
+chiefly about the preparations for the wedding, or made the two simple
+country girls stare by wonderful stories of the horses he had ridden and
+driven, or by descriptions of the parks and the theatre. Now and then
+he was complimentary, but Florence told Amy much more of his admiration
+than she ever heard herself. As to letting her father or aunts know of
+the acquaintance, Amy was half afraid, half ashamed. One day she heard a
+talk between her father and Mr. Nowell, the gardener at the Hall, who
+was vexed about an under gardener.
+
+"I shall have to speak to the Squire about him, I am afraid," said Mr.
+Nowell; "he don't do his work with half a heart, and instead of spending
+his evenings at the club, or at cricket--wholesome and hearty like--he
+is always down at Cray's."
+
+"I hear," said Mr. Lee, "the club was never so badly attended."
+
+"They say it is all along of that there smart groom, Wingfield, as they
+call him, who is all for gambling games, and putting up our young lads
+to betting tricks and the like."
+
+"Ay, ay," said Mr. Lee, "one of them idle, good-for-nothing servants
+loafing about at a public will do more harm in a place than you can undo
+in a day."
+
+"That's true," added Aunt Rose; "I can't bear the sight of the fellow
+lounging about with his little stick, as if he was saying to all the
+place, 'Here I am; it's just improvement to you all to see how I switch
+my legs.'"
+
+"And he stares so!" added Aunt Charlotte. "Last time Amy and I met him
+on the road, I really thought he would have stared the poor child out of
+countenance. I had a great mind to have spoken to him, and told him to
+mind his manners."
+
+"You are too young and too good-looking to do that sort of thing,
+Charlotte," said her brother, laughing. "May be 'twas your aunt he
+looked at, so you needn't go as red as a turkey-cock, Amy girl."
+
+"Me, indeed!" said Charlotte, in hot indignation. "I should hope I was
+_past_ being stared at by a whipper-snapper monkey like that."
+
+The elders all laughed heartily, and Mr. Nowell said something about
+Miss Charlotte being a fine woman of her time of life, which made her
+still more angry, and set her brother and sister laughing the more.
+
+Amy squeezed out a weak little giggle, but she was both angered and
+frightened. She could never tell her aunts now. What would they say? The
+time of the wedding was drawing on; Mr. Wingfield would be going. Little
+flutters moved her breast. Would he say any more before he went, or did
+she wish it? Florence said he was dying for her. Florence thought he was
+a gentleman in disguise, like one she had read about in a novel; but
+Amy, though she liked to dream of something sweet and grand years
+hence, did not want to be startled by love-making now, or to have the
+dreadful disturbance at home there would be if this were more than a
+summer acquaintance. How would the aunts look, when they found she had
+concealed all this--she who had never hidden anything from them before?
+
+And yet she took the stolen pleasure in trembling every day, and tried
+to believe Florence when she said there was no harm in it, that every
+one did so, and that young people must be young!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+AWKWARD MEETINGS.
+
+
+"WELL, to be sure, who would have thought of such a treat! This is a
+pleasure indeed! Rose, Rose, whom do you think we have here?"
+
+"How natural it all do look to be sure. There, Ambrose, there's the very
+rose tree I have so often told you of."
+
+"Why, mother has described it all so well, I could have found my way
+blindfold."
+
+The speaker was a tall, fair-faced young man, looking, in Charlotte
+Lee's eyes, like one of the young gentlemen from the university, but
+with something grave and deep about his face, and by him stood his
+little mother in the neatest of black silk dresses, with something
+sweet and childlike about her face still, though there were some
+middle-aged lines in it. She had once been the Amy Lee of Langley. She
+had married a schoolmaster, Mr. Cuthbert, and this was their only son.
+He had distinguished himself in all his examinations, and at the same
+time had shown so deep an interest in missions to the heathen, and had
+done so much to make the boys of the school care for them, that when
+there was a question of choosing a lad as a missionary student, whose
+expenses would be paid by subscriptions of the clergy in the diocese, at
+the great college of St. Augustine's at Canterbury, the vicar of his
+parish had three years ago proposed Ambrose Cuthbert as the fittest
+youth he knew. He had just finished his terms at the college, and was on
+his way home before going out to Rupertsland, having met his mother at
+the house of his father's brother in London. They had found out that an
+excursion train would enable them to run down to Langley and spend a few
+hours there; and Mrs. Cuthbert, who had always said her son must not
+leave England without having seen her old home, her brother and sisters,
+was delighted with the opportunity, and here they were, the brother and
+the three sisters all together, hardly knowing what they said in their
+eager joy.
+
+"And my little Amy, where is she? You have not seen your namesake, Amy,"
+said the father, who had come in bare armed and floury.
+
+"She is not come back yet from poor little Teddy's," said Aunt Rose.
+"The child goes to teach, and see to, a poor little sick lad in a
+cottage every day, Amy. We like her to do such things," she added,
+pleased that her sister should see that their child was likewise
+something superior in goodness. "Ah! is it you, Jessie? This is Clemmy
+Fielding's daughter, Amy. Did you see our Amy as you came along,
+Jessie?"
+
+"I will run back and call her," said Jessie, who had seen the top of
+Amy's sunshade over the hedge, and in good-natured sympathy wanted to
+spare all the shock of discovery.
+
+"No, no," said Miss Rose, "thank you all the same, Jessie, but if you
+would not mind sitting down to the machine, I would walk out that way
+with my sister, just while my brother is finishing his batch of bread,
+and you are getting ready a bit of something to eat, Charlotte. I know,
+Amy, you would like just to look round the hill, and see where the
+squire's new cottages lie. Wouldn't you?"
+
+Jessie saw there was no help for it. Mrs. Cuthbert was delighted to go
+and to show her son her old haunts; but first she spoke very kindly to
+Jessie, and inquired for her mother, saying she remembered her well; and
+on her side Jessie recollected that her mother always said she owed
+more to Mrs. Cuthbert's kindness when she was a little girl than to any
+one else.
+
+So off set the two elder sisters and the pleasant looking young man
+together. Amy always was late, and Jessie felt one hope, that they might
+meet the two girls coming in together. Yet, as she whirred her machine,
+she reflected that after all it might be best for Amy in the end that
+all this folly and concealment should be put a stop to.
+
+Out they went, talking; Mrs. Cuthbert asking questions, and pointing
+everything out to her son, and Aunt Rose delighted to answer.
+
+"We do not hurry the maid," said Aunt Rose, as they drew near. "You see
+it is such a blessing to that poor little afflicted child to have her
+with him."
+
+Perhaps Rose Lee, who had had her dreams and fancies like other people,
+was thinking of the tales where some one looks in at the window and
+sees the good young person bending over the sufferer's couch, and
+reading good books to him; but it was certainly not Amy whom she saw as
+the door stood open. There was the little boy on the old couch under the
+window, moaning a little, but it was his sister who was standing by him
+with a cup of something, coaxing him with "Now Teddy, do be a good boy,
+and drink it, do'ee now."
+
+"Why, Polly," said Aunt Rose, "are you here?"
+
+"Please, Miss Lee," said Polly, in a high squeaky voice of self-defence,
+"Our Ted is so bad, I couldn't go to school, not this afternoon."
+
+"And where's Miss Amy? Not gone for the doctor?" asked Rose, seeing
+indeed that the poor child looked very ill.
+
+"No, miss," said Polly. "Teacher Amy don't come now for more than a
+minute."
+
+"Where is she then?" asked Rose, to whom the world seemed whirling
+round; while Ambrose Cuthbert stood at the door, and his mother was
+feeling the poor child's hands, and looking with dismay at the grease
+gathering on the half cold broth with which his sister had been trying
+to feed him.
+
+But Polly's answer was quite ready--"Down the mead along with that there
+Wingfield and Cray's gal."
+
+"Who?" asked Rose, severely, for the girl's tone had that sort of pert
+simplicity, or simple pertness, that children can put on when they know
+they are giving unpleasant information, but will not seem to understand
+it.
+
+"With Mr. Wingfield, the gentleman's groom up at the Arms," said she.
+"He be her young man."
+
+Ambrose Cuthbert turned his head outwards to hide a smile. Rose said
+hotly, "Hold your tongue, child! don't be saucy! Come, Amy, here is
+some mistake."
+
+"Stay, Rose," said Mrs. Cuthbert, "the child is really very ill. Has he
+a mother? Something ought to be done."
+
+Rose did not feel as if she could care for the boy at such a moment, and
+just then old Mrs. Rowe, brought by the sound of voices, came in by the
+back door.
+
+"Ay! Rose Lee," she said. "If you wants to know where your fine niece
+is, just look here. I never knew no good come of bringing up young folks
+to be better than their neighbours, going about a visiting as if they
+was ladies."
+
+Rose had reached the back garden, and over the broken-down little gate
+she saw--in the path shaded by the coppice--three figures whom she knew
+only too well, sauntering towards the stile leading into the lane.
+
+She felt quite giddy, as she called out sharply, "Amy Lee!"
+
+There was a great start. The three stood still, and looked about as if
+to see where the voice came from. Rose, recollecting the old woman's
+malicious eyes, got over the stile and came towards them. They had seen
+her by this time; she perceived that they were whispering; then the man
+retreated, and Florence and Amy came towards her, Florence holding Amy's
+hand, and pushing to the front.
+
+"Miss Lee," she said, "we weren't doing no harm. Only taking a walk
+before coming in."
+
+"Florence Cray," returned Miss Lee, "I don't want to have anything to
+say to you. If you have been teaching Amy to deceive her father and me,
+so much the worse. You need not come to work this afternoon. My sister,
+Mrs. Cuthbert, is come to see us, so I shall not require you. Come here,
+Amy."
+
+"You'll not be hard on her, Miss Lee," entreated good-natured Florence,
+feeling Amy's fingers cling to her. "I do assure you there's been
+nothing no one could except against. It's been all most prudent and
+proper all along."
+
+"I said I don't wish to hear nothing from you," said Rose. "If you call
+it prudent and proper to be walking with young men, when she is trusted
+to read to a sick child, I don't know what I shall hear next. Come here,
+Amy; come home with me."
+
+"Indeed, aunt," sobbed Amy, "I've been in every day to see him."
+
+"Come home now, Amy," said her aunt; "I can't talk to you now! No, don't
+cry--don't speak! I won't have you making yourself a show to the whole
+place any more than you have done already. That you should have deceived
+us so!" she sighed to herself. She was taking Amy in, not by the garden,
+but round the corner of the lane, to give a little more time for her to
+recover herself, and also to avoid facing Mrs. Rowe's eager eyes.
+
+"Please don't tell father," once sighed Amy.
+
+"Do you think I am going to be as deceitful as yourself?" was all the
+answer she got.
+
+Amy's was a meek nature, and she knew she had been doing very wrong, so
+she uttered no more entreaties; indeed, she was in such a trembling,
+choking state, that her aunt had to wait, and walk slowly, while the
+girl tried to control herself enough to appear respectably--in a little
+lurking hope that perhaps Aunt Rose would be better than her word, and
+at least not tell Aunt Amy, her godmother, or Cousin Ambrose. She, who
+had been always reckoned so good a girl, and had never been in disgrace
+before! That it should have happened at such a time!
+
+And when the garden gate was opened, there was a further shock. More
+people were in the house! Miss Manners, who had come home the night
+before, had come to inquire for little Edwin, and there was a buzz of
+voices, as she and Mrs. Cuthbert had most joyfully greeted one another.
+
+Miss Manners was delighted to see the young missionary, and the only
+drawback was that poor little Edwin was evidently so much worse. He had
+been gradually growing worse and weaker for the last ten days or a
+fortnight, Polly and Mrs. Rowe said, and his mother had sad nights with
+him; but the parish doctor had said it was only feverishness caused by
+the heat, when he saw the boy last week, and did not seem to think it of
+consequence. The family depended on the mother's work, and in hay-making
+time she could not stay at home. Mr. Somers was gone from home, so was
+Miss Manners, and no one had thought much about the poor child; but he
+had become so much worse in the course of the morning, that it was plain
+that his mother and the doctor must both be sent for without loss of
+time.
+
+Miss Manners came out into the garden with Mrs. Cuthbert, and as the
+aunt and niece came up, said she would find the messenger.
+
+"Had not you thought him so well, Amy?" she asked.
+
+"Oh, ma'am!" exclaimed Aunt Rose, always an outspoken person, "that's
+the worst trouble of all! Who would have thought this sly deceitful
+child could have made as if she was sitting all the time with that poor
+boy, while she was just walking all the time with that good-for-nothing
+groom up at the Arms. How I shall tell her poor father, I don't know. It
+will be enough to break his heart!"
+
+"It was all Florence Cray!" sobbed Amy.
+
+"Well," said Miss Manners, "of course her father must know about it; but
+since Amy the elder is only to be here three or four hours, don't you
+think it would be better not to spoil her visit for him? You can have it
+out in the evening, you know; but it would be a great pity to give him
+such a shock at once. Don't you think so, Amy?"
+
+"Indeed I do, ma'am," said Mrs. Cuthbert; "I am afraid the poor girl may
+have been to blame, but it will not be the worse for her to wait a
+little while, and my brother would be so much taken up with the matter,
+that I am afraid my Ambrose would never know his uncle as I should
+like."
+
+"I'm sure it will all be spoilt to me, any way," said poor Aunt Rose,
+half choked.
+
+"But you will bear the burthen alone, for your brother's sake and
+Charlotte's," said Miss Manners, cheerfully; "besides, you have your
+own dear old Amy to help you to bear it, and that is like old times."
+
+This comforted Rose a good deal. Miss Dora--as she and her sister Amy
+still called her--said she would not say good-bye, she would look in
+before the Cuthberts went, and say how the child was.
+
+The younger Amy was glad at first of the respite, but altogether it was
+the most dreadful day she ever spent. There was her father in his Sunday
+best coming out to meet them, wondering what had made them stay so long.
+Mrs. Cuthbert answered, to save Aunt Rose, that they had found the child
+much worse, and that Miss Manners had come in. This satisfied him, and
+they went in to the meal Aunt Charlotte had prepared--a very late
+luncheon, or early and solid tea, whichever it might be called--in the
+parlour, with the best china, and everything as nice as possible.
+
+Really Amy felt as if it would have been less dreadful to have been
+locked up in her room, or sitting sewing with Jessie in the workroom,
+than sitting up in the parlour with the rest, and hearing her father
+show his pride in her, making her fetch her prize for the religious
+examination, and talking of her almost as if he wanted to compare her
+with Aunt Amy's missionary son.
+
+And then when Ambrose Cuthbert was questioned about his plans, and told
+in a very modest quiet way where he was to go, and the work he was to do
+under a missionary to the Red Indians, Amy saw more and more how foolish
+she had been. What was that conceited groom whose boast was of the
+horses he had ridden, and the bets laid on them, compared with this
+young man? Which was the gentleman of the two? And this was her own
+first cousin, and she had forfeited the respect and esteem which he
+might have carried out with him! He would only--in those far
+countries--think of his cousin, Amy Lee, as a giddy, deceitful,
+hypocritical girl, who had carried on a flirtation under cover of a good
+work.
+
+Amy burnt to tell all the excuses she thought she had, and how she had
+been led on, and that it was not so bad as no doubt Aunt Rose thought;
+but she must keep all back. Only at last her father remarked that his
+darling was very silent--shy, he thought, with her grand scholarly
+cousin. He said he should like them to hear what a pretty voice she had,
+and told her to sing one of her hymns, such as "Abide with us;" but Amy
+could not do that. She put her face in her hands, choked, and began to
+cry.
+
+"Ah!" said Aunt Charlotte; "poor dear, it has been a great shock to her,
+the poor little boy being taken so much worse."
+
+It was a comfort to every one that at that moment Miss Manners came in
+through the shop, asking for Jessie Hollis.
+
+"The poor little boy is very ill," she said. "The only thing that seems
+to soothe him is a bit of a verse that his sister Mary says her teacher
+taught her. That was you--is it not, Jessie? Mary can only say half, and
+we can't make it out; but she says, 'If teacher was but here.'"
+
+Of course Miss Lee was ready to spare Jessie for such a reason, and she
+folded up her work while Miss Manners had a little talk with Mrs.
+Cuthbert, on the mingled pain and sweetness of the giving up her only
+son to be one of those sent forth "to sow beside all waters."
+
+"I am so glad he should have seen you, ma'am, before he leaves us," said
+his mother, the tears rising in her quiet eyes. "I only wish he could
+have seen Miss Edith--Mrs. Howard; for indeed, ma'am, I always feel that
+whatever good my children have learnt at home, was owing to the way I
+was brought up and the way Miss Edith used to talk to us."
+
+"Nothing will make my sister so happy as to hear it, Amy," said Miss
+Manners. "Somehow it seems to chime in with what I had ventured to bring
+as a little remembrance of your old home for your son. I had prepared it
+to send the St. Augustine's scholar, before I knew I should see him."
+
+She gave him a beautiful little _Christian Year_ and _Lyra Innocentium_
+in a case together, and as the book-marker was the illuminated text--
+
+          "In the morning sow thy seed,
+           And in the evening withhold not thine hand,
+           For thou knowest not which shall prosper."
+
+Ambrose Cuthbert thanked the lady in a very nice way, telling her that
+he should value her gift much, and that he hoped to make the poems his
+companions and often his guides in his work.
+
+So with a warm pressure of the hands of both mother and son, Miss
+Manners walked away with Jessie.
+
+"I think," she presently said, "some of your bread on the waters is
+coming back to you, Jessie. They say that little Mary Smithers has been
+such a comfort to her little brother, by repeating to him what she
+learns on Sundays, and that she has been so much more good and attentive
+to him of late."
+
+"I am sure, ma'am," said Jessie, "I never thought Mary Smithers seemed
+to understand anything."
+
+"We can never judge where the seed we sow will prosper," said Miss Dora,
+thinking within herself of the different results with Amy and Jessie.
+
+The little boy had been carried up to the bedroom. Old Mrs. Rowe was
+there, and his mother, who was trying to help him to lie more easily,
+while he moved feebly, but restlessly, and still looked at little
+Polly, who was repeating over and over some verse in which "Shepherd"
+was the only word that Miss Manners, well as she knew the children's
+tones, could make out. Jessie, however, knew it directly, and repeated--
+
+          "Gracious Saviour, gentle Shepherd,
+             Little ones are dear to Thee,
+           Gathered in Thine Arms and carried,
+             In Thy Bosom may we be
+           Sweetly, fondly, gently tended,
+             From all want and danger free."
+
+She could say the whole hymn, but the child grew restless as soon as she
+had passed beyond the first verse. She returned to it, once, twice, and
+then Polly got back what she had partly forgotten and went on with it,
+which was evidently what quieted the boy best. He seemed too far gone to
+attend to anything else; the sense of other words did not reach his
+ears, but these evidently gave him pleasure. The doctor had said he was
+dying, and the women thought he would sleep himself away. There seemed
+no more to be done. Polly had her verse to say to him, and no help
+seemed needed; so Miss Manners and Jessie went down the stairs again,
+and out into the garden, Jessie shedding many tears, but very far from
+sad ones. When she could speak, she said that the young woman in the
+hospital to whom she owed so much knew the hymn, and had so often
+repeated it, that Jessie had learnt it. She had used the first verse one
+Sunday when teaching the children about the Good Shepherd, and, having a
+little more time than usual, had tried to teach it to them--little
+thinking how she should thus meet it--but using it because she had grown
+fond of it for the sake of her friend, and of the new and higher
+feelings that were linked with the first learning of it.
+
+There was a great peace and thankfulness in her heart at having thus
+tasted a sort of first-fruits of her little attempt at sowing. It was
+soothing a death-bed! Might not she well rejoice that she had
+persevered, in spite of the temptation of gain, in not letting her head
+and heart be carried away with the fever of work, but giving the best
+part of herself to the task she had undertaken?
+
+Not that Jessie saw or thought that this had been the case. Yet if she
+had let herself be swept away with Grace's vehement desire to engross
+all the needlework, she must have given up her preparation; she would
+have been wearied, hurried, and very likely fretful and impatient. At
+any rate, there would not have been that kindness and earnestness which
+leads others to be good far more than the actual words of teaching.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE RECKONING.
+
+
+"IT is a right punishment for our sinful pride in her," said Aunt Rose,
+as she had a few last words alone with her elder sister.
+
+"Well, Rose," said Mrs. Cuthbert, "I would not be so very hard on the
+poor child. I've been watching her, and I think, though no doubt she has
+done very wrong, it was in a childish sort of way, and that you won't
+find there's been any real love-making or nonsense of that sort."
+
+"I'm sure, now I find the child could deceive us so, and act such a
+part, there's nothing I could not believe," said poor Aunt Rose.
+
+"That is sad enough, but I think you'll find it the worst, and that she
+was led into it by others."
+
+"That Florence Cray!" exclaimed Rose; "and what to do about her? How
+hinder her from spoiling our child, when she's bound apprentice to me? I
+wish I'd never listened to her father!"
+
+Here came Amy herself, sent up to say that the trap was ready, and her
+aunt must not be late for the train. She felt as if the last protection
+was gone when she saw her aunt and cousin driven away in the conveyance
+they had hired at Ellerby.
+
+Girls bred up like Florence Cray would have thought it all a great fuss
+about nothing. First and last Florence had seen nothing but fun in Amy's
+cheating her strait-laced aunts and getting a little diversion, while
+they wanted to shut her up with a cross child; but Amy had been bred up
+to a very different way of looking at things, and the whole afternoon
+had only been setting more fully before her how she had fallen from what
+she had imagined of herself last Lent!
+
+After all, the delay had made it better for her. Aunt Rose did not tell
+the story quite so hotly and violently as it would have come out in the
+first shock of wrath, but it was dreadful enough to hear her father
+say--
+
+"Amy, child, what is this? I never thought you would go for to do such a
+thing."
+
+"You that we had trusted from a baby," added Aunt Rose.
+
+Aunt Charlotte said nothing, but her looks were the worst of all to
+bear, they were so gentle and so sorrowful. And when Amy had sobbed out
+her story they told her that she had been so sly that they did not know
+how to believe her word.
+
+"Oh, father! you may believe me. I never told a story--no, I never did!"
+
+"And yet you could make as if you were going day by day to sit with that
+poor little chap, only that you might be tramping about the lanes with
+that there scamp!"
+
+It was what he took as the hypocrisy of the thing that chiefly wounded
+Mr. Lee, and when Amy declared she had always gone into the cottage and
+spoken to the boy, she was told, "Much she could have attended to him,
+since she had never seen that the poor child was dying."
+
+The fact was that Florence had hurried her a good deal, because Mr.
+Wingfield was to show them the rosettes the horses were to wear on the
+wedding-day.
+
+After all, Amy had to go up to her room only half believed and
+unforgiven. Her father had a great mind to have gone to have had it out
+with Florence Cray that night, but as some holiday people were there,
+he doubted whether he could see her alone, and waited till the morning.
+Then he called her into the parlour and said:
+
+"Florence Cray, what have you been doing with my girl?"
+
+"No harm, Mr. Lee," said Florence, frightened, but therefore pert, and
+resolved to stand up for her friend. "You may trust me for that! I know
+what is proper."
+
+Mr. Lee made an odd sort of noise, and said: "You do, eh! Proper to
+deceive her friends--"
+
+"Oh! now, Mr. Lee," said Florence, looking up in the droll, saucy way
+that served her instead of beauty, "it was only two old aunts. One
+always reckons it fair play by an old aunt."
+
+"Have done with nonsense like that," said Mr. Lee. "Now, Florence Cray,
+mine is a girl with no mother. My sisters, and I have done our best to
+keep her a good, innocent girl, and we can't but feel it a hard thing
+that you should come leading her to keep company, without our knowledge,
+with a fellow that you must know is not such as we would approve."
+
+"I'm sure I meant no harm," said Florence, beginning to cry; "I only
+thought it was dull for her, and took her for a walk. And you needn't be
+afraid, Mr. Lee, I never left them alone not one minute, nor he never
+said one word; nor did more than just shake hands. You may trust me, Mr.
+Lee."
+
+On the whole the Lees were satisfied that the mischief had not gone as
+far as such imprudence might have led. Mr. Wingfield would be gone in a
+few days, for the wedding was coming on, and Amy was certainly not in
+love with him. When she compared him with Ambrose Cuthbert, she felt
+sick of having been flattered for a moment by his attentions, and
+looked on the whole with the bitterest shame, as having led her away
+from all her good resolutions, and made her thus deceive and disobey her
+father and aunts. And when the knell rang for poor little Edwin Smithers
+she cried more than ever, feeling almost guilty of his death.
+
+She never wished for a moment to accept the invitation for which she had
+once been so eager, to see Miss Robson's wedding clothes and wedding
+presents. Grace Hollis went and took Jessie, and Florence Cray went too.
+
+These were a sight! Such gilt clocks! Such extraordinary contrivances
+for ink-stands, toilette apparatus, dinner services, and every service
+that could be thought of! Such girdles, chatelaines, rings and
+bracelets! Such silks and satins! such garments for morning, noon, and
+night, and even afternoon tea! And oh! such dressing-gowns!
+
+They sent Florence Cray home thinking over all the novels she had ever
+seen, where a girl at an inn married a rich man, and also thinking how
+to alter her best hat.
+
+They sent Grace Hollis home deep in plans how to get another order for
+plain work.
+
+And they sent home, Jessie very happy indeed, for a lady's-maid had
+asked whether a dozen more handkerchiefs could be marked with "Maude" in
+the same style as the Nina.
+
+Miss Needwood was really getting quite prosperous.
+
+The next day, almost every one, who could, went to see as much as
+possible of the wedding; so Aunt Rose had not yet to endure the presence
+of Florence, and to keep watch that she did not chatter to Amy, who was
+drooping and shame-stricken enough.
+
+That morning came a letter from Mrs. Cuthbert. She said she should be
+lonesome without Ambrose; and would her brother lend her his Amy for a
+few weeks, when she would do her best for the child, and not let her
+forget her needlework? This made things much easier to all; but Amy knew
+it was a very different going from home from what it might have been.
+
+Before she came back, Florence Cray had found what she called "working
+at Old Lee's" so dull, that she had teased her parents into requesting
+the return of part of her premium, and binding her to the chief milliner
+in Ellerby.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+WHICH SHALL PROSPER?
+
+
+MR. SOMERS had come home from his six weeks' holiday, and was talking
+over the village news with Miss Manners.
+
+She told him of little Edwin Smithers's death, of the summons to Jessie
+Hollis, and of the visit of Mrs. Cuthbert.
+
+"Of course it is wrong to judge," she said, "but do you remember that
+Lenten sermon, and the impression I told you it made?"
+
+"I remember well. It was on the seed, and on bringing forth fruit."
+
+"Well, when we had the Parable of the Sower the other day, I could not
+help thinking how it had worked out. There were some, like that Cray
+girl, who never seemed to take it in at all, but left it as something
+outside of them. Then three distinctly were moved to undertake
+something, the two Hollises and Amy Lee. Well, Grace dropped her
+missionary needlework as soon as that wedding order come in her way----"
+
+"Don't be hard on her, Dora."
+
+"No; but I'm afraid I can't help seeing that she does not seem to keep
+up her Sunday ways as she used. Then there's a sharp, worn, fretted way.
+I am very much afraid she is getting choked with the thorns."
+
+"I don't know Miss Hollis well," he said, thoughtfully, "but I am afraid
+she does not look much beyond her shop."
+
+"And my poor little Amy Lee responding so readily--seeming all that
+could be wished, and then showing herself so little able to stand
+temptation from that silly girl."
+
+"I hope there was no more than silliness."
+
+"I don't think there was; but still, after all the care Rose and
+Charlotte have taken to bring up that girl really refined, it was very
+disappointing to find her ready to be led away in an instant by foolish,
+vulgar admiration; above all, when it led her to neglect the good work
+she was supposed to be doing, it showed such shallowness."
+
+"It is a comfort that often trials, and even falls, do deepen the soil,
+so that the roots may have a better hold another time," said Mr. Somers.
+"I think there is good hope that so it will be with poor little Amy. And
+I think you have some good soil to tell me of."
+
+"Indeed I have. I am sure Jessie Hollis has shown herself good soil, and
+her work upon that very unpromising Mary Smithers showed itself
+remarkably. But that was not all I was thinking of. It seems to me that
+we have had a glimpse of what the hundredfold produce may be. Think of
+my dear sister Edith, working away at her class when there was much less
+help than now, and see what some of them have grown up, especially Amy
+Cuthbert. I know she had a good home, and other helps; but still I heard
+what she said of Edith's teaching and training. It has helped her to
+make that young Ambrose Cuthbert what he is,--and what may not be his
+harvest!"
+
+"As though a man should cast seed into the field," said Mr. Somers,
+thoughtfully. "First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn
+in the ear."
+
+"Ah! I am leaping on too fast. We only see a little of the
+first-fruits," said Miss Manners, "and take it for an earnest of the
+rest." And then she repeated Bishop Heber's hymn, which she had often
+taught the children:--
+
+          "O God, by Whom the seed is given,
+             By Whom the harvest blest,
+           Whose Word, like manna showers from heaven,
+             Is planted in our breast.
+
+          "Preserve it from the passing feet,
+             From plunderers of the air,
+           The sultry sun's intenser heat,
+             And weeds of worldly care.
+
+          "Though buried deep or thinly strewn,
+             Do Thou Thy grace supply:
+           The hope in earthly furrows strewn
+             Shall ripen in the sky."
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+          LONDON:
+
+          R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR,
+
+          BREAD STREET HILL.
+
+
+
+
+BOOKS FOR PRESENTS.
+
+
+          ABBEYCHURCH; OR, SELF-CONTROL AND SELF-CONCEIT,
+          AND THE MYSTERY OF THE CAVERN. Second Edition. By
+          CHARLOTTE M. YONGE. Fcap. 8vo. With Frontispiece.
+          Cloth. 4_s._ 6_d._
+
+          A LAND AND SEA STORY. By ELLEN E. LUSHINGTON,
+          Author of "Westfield Village," &c. 18mo, cloth.
+          2_s._
+
+          AN INVALID'S DAY: THOUGHTS ON INVALID LIFE. By the
+          Author of "Sunshine in Sorrow." Crown 8vo, cloth.
+          2_s._
+
+          ASHLEY PRIORS; OR, THE BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. Second
+          Edition. Crown 8vo, cloth. With Frontispiece.
+          5_s._
+
+          AT SIXES AND SEVENS. By A. WEBER. Crown 8vo,
+          cloth. 5_s._
+
+          BEN SYLVESTER'S WORD. By CHARLOTTE M. YONGE. 18mo,
+          cloth. Fourteenth Edition. 1_s._ Sewed, 8_d._
+
+          BIOGRAPHIES OF GOOD WOMEN. Edited by CHARLOTTE M.
+          YONGE. (First Series.) Fcap. 8vo. Second Edition.
+          6_s._ (Second Series.) Fcap. 8vo, cloth. 7_s._
+
+          BISHOP WILBERFORCE: A SKETCH FOR CHILDREN. By LUCY
+          PHILLIMORE. Square 16mo, red lines, gilt edges.
+          With Photograph. Second Edition. 1_s._ 6_d._
+
+          "BURNT OUT:" A STORY FOR MOTHERS' MEETINGS. By
+          CHARLOTTE M. YONGE. Second Edition. Fcap. 8vo,
+          cloth. 2_s._ 6_d._
+
+          CASTLE BUILDERS; OR, THE DEFERRED CONFIRMATION. By
+          CHARLOTTE M. YONGE. Fifth Edition. Fcap. 8vo,
+          cloth 8_s._ 6_d._
+
+          CHRISTMAS MUMMERS, AND OTHER STORIES. By CHARLOTTE
+          M. YONGE, Crown 8vo, cloth. 3_s._ 6_d._
+
+          CONCEITED PIG. With Six Illustrations by HARRISON
+          WEIR. Royal 18mo, cloth. 1_s._
+
+          CONSTANT PRINCE. By CHRISTABEL R. COLERIDGE. Fcap.
+          8vo, cloth. 2_s._ 6_d._
+
+          PAMELA'S BEQUEST. By M. E. POOLE (Mrs. Henry
+          Sandford), Author of "Pictures of Cottage Life in
+          the West of England," &c. Post 8vo, cloth 2_s._
+          6_d._
+
+          COUNTESS KATE AND STOKESLEY SECRET. By CHARLOTTE
+          M. YONGE. In One Vol. Crown 8vo, cloth. With
+          Frontispiece. Third Edition. 5_s._
+
+          DAYS AND SEASONS; OR, CHURCH POETRY FOR THE YEAR.
+          Fourth Edition. 18mo, cloth extra, red edges.
+          2_s._ 6_d._
+
+          ERIC AND THORA: A STORY FOR CHILDREN. By the
+          Author of "St. Peter's Day." 18mo, cloth. With
+          Frontispiece. 1_s._ 6_d._
+
+          EVENING REST; OR, CLOSING THOUGHTS FOR EVERY DAY
+          IN THE CHRISTIAN YEAR. Third Edition. Post 8vo,
+          cloth, 2_s._ 6_d._; morocco extra, bevelled
+          boards, 6_s._; calf extra, limp, 5_s._ Cheaper
+          Edition, limp cloth, lettered, 1_s._; or Twelve
+          for 10_s._
+
+          FRIARSWOOD POST-OFFICE. By CHARLOTTE M. YONGE.
+          Eighth Edition. With Frontispiece. Demy 18mo,
+          cloth. 2_s._ 6_d._
+
+          JEANNIE GORDON; OR, "BLESSED ARE THEY THAT
+          THIRST." By the Author of "Joined to an Idol," &c.
+          18mo, cloth. With Frontispiece. 1_s._
+
+          JOINED TO AN IDOL. By G. S. M., Author of
+          "Winnie's Difficulties." Frontispiece and
+          Vignette. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, bevelled. 3_s._
+          6_d._
+
+          LADDIE. By the Author of "Miss Toosey's Mission."
+          18mo, cloth. 1_s._
+
+          LANGLEY SCHOOL. By CHARLOTTE M. YONGE. Fourth
+          Edition. Demy 18mo, cloth. 2_s._ 6_d._
+
+          LEONARD THE LION HEART. By CHARLOTTE M. YONGE.
+          Tenth Edition. 18mo, sewed. 6_d._
+
+          MICHAEL, THE CHORISTER. 18mo, sewed, 6_d._; 18mo,
+          cloth, 1_s._ Eleventh Edition.
+
+          MILES HARLING. By ALICE WEBER. Two Vols. Crown
+          8vo, cloth. L1 1_s._
+
+          MISS TOOSEY'S MISSION. By the Author of "Laddie."
+          Seventh Thousand. With Frontispiece. 18mo, cloth.
+          1_s._
+
+          MISTRESS OF COON HALL. By MARGARET R. CARTMELL,
+          Author of the "Viking." Crown 8vo, cloth. 5_s._
+
+          NEW GROUND. By CHARLOTTE M. YONGE. With
+          Frontispiece. Fcap. 8vo, cloth. Second Edition.
+          3_s._
+
+          NOTE-BOOK OF AN ELDERLY LADY. By ELIZABETH M.
+          SEWELL. Crown 8vo, cloth. 6_s._
+
+          OTTER (THE), AND OTHER STORIES OF ANIMALS AND
+          BIRDS. By the Author of "Friends in Fur and
+          Feathers." With Six Original Illustrations by
+          HARRISON WEIR. 8vo. Handsomely bound in cloth,
+          gilt. 5_s._
+
+          PALACE OF FUN: A STORY FOR CHILDREN. By C.
+          RICKARDS. 18mo, cloth. With Frontispiece. 1_s._
+
+          PIGEON PIE. By CHARLOTTE M. YONGE. Sixth Edition.
+          With Frontispiece. Demy 18mo, cloth, 1_s._
+
+          PLOUGHING AND SOWING; OR, THE ANNALS OF AN EVENING
+          SCHOOL IN A YORKSHIRE VILLAGE, AND THE WORK THAT
+          GREW OUT OF IT. By a Clergyman's Daughter. Sixth
+          Edition. Fcap. 8vo, cloth. 3_s._ 6_d._
+
+          QUESTIONS ON THE PSALMS. By CHARLOTTE M. YONGE.
+          Demy 18mo, sewed. 10_d._ Uniform with "Questions
+          on the Catechism," "Collects," &c. &c.
+
+          RAILROAD CHILDREN. By CHARLOTTE M. YONGE. Eleventh
+          Edition. 6_d._
+
+          RIGHT FEAR AND WRONG FEAR--"IT LOOKS SO!"--GOSSIP.
+          By the Author of "Sunshine in Sickness." 18mo,
+          cloth. 1_s._
+
+          LADS AND LASSES OF LANGLEY. A STORY BOOK FOR
+          CHILDREN. By CHARLOTTE M. YONGE. 18mo, cloth.
+          2_s._
+
+          SIX CUSHIONS. By CHARLOTTE M. YONGE. Second
+          Edition. With Frontispiece. Royal 18mo, cloth.
+          3_s._
+
+          SPRING AND AUTUMN. By PHOEBE ALLEN, Author of
+          "Gilmory." With Preface by the late Canon ASHWELL,
+          M.A. 18mo, cloth. With Frontispiece. 1_s._ 6_d._
+
+          STOKESLEY SECRET. By CHARLOTTE M. YONGE. Fourth
+          Edition. Royal 18mo, cloth. 2_s._ 6_d._
+
+          STORIES ON PROVERBS. 18mo, cloth. 1_s._ 6_d._
+
+          STORY LECTURES FOR COTTAGE READINGS, BIBLE
+          CLASSES, MOTHERS' MEETINGS, &c. By C. M. HALLETT.
+          18mo, cloth. 1_s._ 6_d._
+
+          SUNSHINE IN SICKNESS. By the Author of "Pictures
+          of the Heavens," &c. Fourth Edition. Fcap. 8vo,
+          cloth. 2_s._
+
+          SUNSHINE IN SORROW. By the Author of "Sunshine in
+          Sickness." A New and Cheaper Edition. Post 8vo,
+          cloth. 2_s._ 6_d._
+
+          TE DEUM. MILES'S Illustrations. Square 16mo,
+          cloth, red lines, gilt edges. 2_s._
+
+          VERSES ON THE GOSPELS, FOR SUNDAYS AND HOLYDAYS.
+          By CHARLOTTE M. YONGE. Demy 18mo, paper covers,
+          6_d._; cloth, 1_s._
+
+          WESTFIELD VILLAGE. By ELLEN E. LUSHINGTON. Fcap.
+          8vo, cloth. 2_s._
+
+          WOMANKIND. By CHARLOTTE M. YONGE. Fourth Edition.
+          Crown 8vo. 6_s._
+
+
+          London: WALTER SMITH (late MOZLEY),
+          34, King Street, Covent Garden.
+
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+Obvious punctuation errors were corrected.
+
+Page 62, word "to" added to text (we can to get)
+
+Page 141, "neet" changed to "meet" (out to meet)
+
+
+
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #32200 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/32200)