puts you out, you always go on in that way, and it's very naughty; you'd make mother quite miserable, if she heard you. I'm sure you earn more than we girls can. Look how you work in the garden; and every day you'll be getting bigger and stronger, and be of ever so much use to mother; so don't say any thing about the sea again, there's a dear.”

Frank not looking quite convinced, she went on :— "I know why you say you don't care such a deal for that sort of thing," and she imitated Frank's impetuous action with the fork; "you've been digging all the morning, and you're tired and hungry, and that makes you feel a bit cross, don't it, dear? But dinner's most ready, and then you'll forget all about it," and putting her arm coaxingly round his neck, she kissed him lovingly on the cheek; then, lest he should take advantage of such a show of affection, she pinched his ear, saying as she ran off, " and whatever should we all do without a man in the house?"

Frank shook his head, but said no more; he only thought, and that perhaps the more deeply from having his speech restrained on the subject.

After dinner Mrs. Wentworth looked out the materials and set Jessie to work. She and Margaret must finish the washing before they could begin. But the next day, getting up very early, they contrived to get every thing ironed and aired, and, before tea, they were all put away into the great trunk in which they kept their linen and such things when they were clean.

Jessie and Frank always went to bed at nine o'clock,

but Margaret, now in her fourteenth year, sat up with her mother an hour later, and during that hour they both worked with their needles; in consequence of which, they made great progress with the embroidery, and by Thursday in the following week it was finished, and carefully wrapped up ready for the kind old carrier.

He came very early in the morning, but not too early for the inmates of Corner Cottage; and as the widow put the parcel into his hand, she begged him to tell Mrs. Robinson how grateful she was for the employment.

They were in a state of great excitement all that day, very happy, but slightly anxious. Mrs. Wentworth said, "If the work were satisfactory, it would be a step in the right direction, and might lead to more from other ladies, and with such help, who knows how much they might be able to do towards furnishing the cottage before the next cold weather came? and how nice it would be to see the gradual improvement in their little home, as by degrees they got different articles of furniture, the want of which at present caused them so much inconvenience."

Such a prospect was very cheering; and on the strength of it, and because they needed something extra after their close work, Frank was sent to Blake's, the principal shop in the village, for a pound of streaky bacon, and while his mother cut some kail, Margaret peeled the potatoes; so that, very soon after his return, the good dinner was in the saucepan, and all, as he said, "comfortably wobbling on the hob."

They had no customers that morning, until just as the bacon and greens were ready, and as Mrs. Wentworth, sitting in the shop, was conscious of a very fragrant odour (for Margaret had raised the lid of the saucepan to try the meat with a fork), and feeling quite hungry from the smell of the food, two smartlooking girls entered, and asked if she had any bugled collars.

They were a long time making up their minds which they would have; "it was for a birthday present," they said, "for a friend," and they turned them all over and over, and chattered and laughed, till Mrs. Wentworth thought they never intended to go. At last they selected one, but the price was too high. "What was really the lowest she would take?" they inquired.

The widow hesitated a little; she had really marked all her goods at the lowest profitable price; that collar had taken her three days to bugle, and the materials cost eightpence. "Well," she replied, "suppose I say half a crown. I fear I cannot afford to take less. It is well worth the money; the pattern is rich, handsome, and uncommon, and the work very strong."

After much whispering, the girls agreed to the price; the half-crown was paid, the collar pinned up, and, as Jessie came in to say the dinner was on the table, they left the shop with their purchase.

"Why, mother!" exclaimed Jessie, as she helped to put smooth the other collars, "if the materials only cost eightpence, there is one shilling and tenpence real profit; that'll go to your nest egg,' as you call

the fruit money, I suppose. I declare the egg will

soon be too large for the nest."

"You forget, my dear," replied her mother, "that it took me three days to make, and time is money, you know. Still, I am very thankful to have sold it, and it comes like all profit now; for those collars were made before Christmas, and I was afraid they'd be getting old-fashioned, and then I knew they would not sell."

Jessie sang more cheerily than ever that afternoon, as she washed the plates and dishes, and placed them in the rack above the sink to drain; then she polished up the knives and the two tumblers (all the glassware the cottage could boast): then, filling the kettle, making up the fire, spreading the big apron to dry, unrolling her sleeves, and taking a peep in the mite of a mirror which hung over the mantelpiece, just to see if her face was clean and her hair in order, she was about to enter the shop, when Margaret called out, bidding her not to hurry, for she would mind the shop until tea-time, and, as it was so sunny and beautiful out of doors, Jessie had better go and help Frank and mother with the gardening; "but," she added, don't forget to take a peep at the fire now and then, for mother likes her tea early, you know, dear."

66

"All right, Maggy," exclaimed Jessie: "you're a dear to mind the shop when it isn't your turn. It's the very thing I wanted, to go out in the sun; it is so prosy, sitting behind that counter, waiting for customers who so seldom come. I feel sometimes as if

I must scream and shout when I see the sun shining so bright, and hear the dear little birds chirping and twittering outside, while I'm obliged to sit there, click! clicking with my pins till I'm cross."

"Well," said Margaret, "be off now; you can dig your discontent into the garden. You're a grumbling little thing, and say a good deal that you don't mean, I think; for I'm sure we ought not to complain, when we see how hard mother works!"

"Oh! Maggy dear, I didn't mean to complain, and I'd sit all day, and every day, in the mopy shop, if it would help mother; but I do so love the merry sunshine, and I do so hate to be stived up in the house, when the garden looks so tempting. But I'll leave off grumbling, dear, if I can, and try to make the best of it, as you do ;" and flipping the elastic of her old garden hat under her chin, Jessie skipped forth with great glee, while the quiet Margaret, sitting in the shop, could hear the glad young voice ringing through the air, as the happy girl ran to and fro in the garden, waiting on her mother with the fruit-baskets, or carrying weeds and trash to put on the heap at the end of the enclosure, where Frank had settled to make a bonfire as soon as it was sufficiently dry.