What She Could Part 29

"Because mother said so. She won't do anything."

"Then she'll have to get a girl to do things, I suppose."

"But Maria, that is just what mother wants she shouldn't do; because she'd have to pay for it."

"Who would have to pay for it?"

"Mamma."

"Why would she?"

"She said so."

"I don't see why she would, I am sure. If Aunt Erminia hires a girl, _she'll_ pay for her."

"But that will come out of what Aunt Erminia pays to mamma; and what Aunt Erminia pays to mamma is what we have got to live upon."

"Who said so?"

"Mamma said so." Matilda answered with her lip trembling; for the bringing facts all down to hard detail was difficult to bear.

"Well, I _do_ think," exclaimed Maria, "if I had a sister sick and not able to help herself, I would not be so mean!"

Matilda sat still and cried and said nothing.

"Who _is_ going to do all the work then, Tilly?"

There would have been something comical, if it had not been sad, in the way the little girl looked up and said, "You and I."

"I guess we will!" said Maria, with opening eyes. "You and I! Take care of the house, and wash the dishes, and cook the dinner, and everything!

You know we couldn't, Matilda; and what's more, _I_ know we won't."

"Yes, mamma wishes it. We must; and so we can, Maria."

"_I_ can't," said Maria, taking down her school cloak.

"But, Maria! we must. Mamma will be more sick if we do not; you heard what Aunt Candy said at breakfast, that she is fearfully nervous; and if she hears that there is a hired girl in the house, it will worry her dreadfully."

"It will be Aunt Candy's fault then," said Maria, fastening her cloak.

"I never heard of anybody so mean in all my life!--never."

"But that don't help anything, Maria. And you and I _must_ do what mamma said. You know we shall have little enough to live on, as it is, and if you take the pay of a hired girl out of it, there will be so little left."

"I've got my twenty-five dollars, that I can get summer dresses with; I am glad I haven't spent it," said Maria. "Come, Tilly; I'm going home."

"But, Maria, you have not said what you ought to say yet."

"What ought I to say?"

"I will help and do my part. We can manage it. Come, Maria, say that you will."

"Your part," said Maria. "What do you suppose your part would come to?

What can such a child as you do?"

"Maria, now is the time to show whether you are really one of the Band of workers."

"I am, of course. I joined it."

"That would not make you one of them, if you don't do what they promised to do."

"When did I ever promise to be Aunt Candy's servant girl?" said Maria, fiercely. "I should like to know."

"But 'we are the servants of Christ,'" said Matilda, softly, her eyes glistening through.

"What then?"

"We promised to try to do whatever would honour Him."

"I don't know what all this affair has to do with it," said Maria. "You say _we_ promised;--you didn't?"

"Yes, I did."

"You didn't join the Band?"

"Yes, I did."

"When?"

"A few days after you did."

"Why didn't you tell me? Did you tell Mr. Richmond?"

"Yes."

"I think it is mean, that you did not tell me."

"I am telling you now. But now, Maria, you know what you promised."

"I did not promise this sort of thing at all, Tilly."

"Yes, don't you know? 'we stand ready to do His will.' That's in the covenant."

"But _this_ is not His will," insisted Maria. "This is Aunt Erminia's meanness."

"But it certainly is His will that we should do what mamma says, and please her; and this is the work He has given us to do."

Maria's answer this time was to sit down and cry for her part. Matilda did not join her, but stood by, patiently waiting. Maria cried and sobbed for several minutes; then she started up and set off homewards at a furious rate. Matilda gathered together her books and followed her sister; trying to comfort herself with the thought that this _was_ certainly the work given them to do, and that she would try and make the best of it.

The dinner was sorrowful enough. Maria, indeed, ate it as if remembering it was the last dinner for some time to come that she would find ready prepared for her. But Anne and Letty were broken down with grief; and Mrs. Candy's endeavours to comfort them were either not the right sort, or fell upon unready ears. Clarissa was composed as usual.