s, which made the dinner dishes so hard to wash, and which made
her cry when told that all the knives and forks must be scoured, the
tea-kettle wiped, and set with its nose to the north, in what Mrs.
Grundy called the "Pout Hole," and which proved to be a place under
the stairs, where pots, kettles and iron ware generally were kept.

All things have an end, and so did the scouring, in spite of Mary's
fears to the contrary, and then watching a time when Mrs. Grundy did
not see her, she stole away up stairs. Taking Alice on her lap she sat
down by the open window where the damp air cooled and moistened her
flushed face. The rain was over, and across the meadow the sun was
shining through the tall trees, making the drops of water which hung
upon the leaves sparkle and flash in the sunlight like so many tiny
rainbows. Mary watched them for a time, and then looking upward at
the thin white clouds which chased each other so rapidly across the
blue sky, wondered if her mother's home were there, and if she ever
thought of her children, so sad and lonely without her.

A movement of Alice aroused her from her reverie, and looking into the
road, she saw directly opposite the house Billy Bender, and with him,
Alice's cradle. In a moment Mary's arms were thrown about his neck as
tightly as if she thought he had the power and was come to take her
away.

"Oh, Billy, Billy," she said, "I was afraid you would not come, and it
made me so unhappy. Can't you take me home with you?"

Billy had expected as much, and had tried hard to make his mother say
that if Mary and Alice were very homesick he might bring them home.
But this was Mrs. Bender's sick day, and Billy's entreaties only
increased the dangerous symptoms of _palsy_ from which she was now
suffering, the scarlet fever having been given up until another time.

"If the _s'lect_ men pay me well for it," said she, "I will take them
what little time I have to live, but not without."

Billy knew the town could support them much cheaper where they were,
so he gave up his project, and bought Mary a pound of seed cakes and
Alice a stick of candy. Then, the moment the rain had ceased he got
himself in readiness to start, for he knew how long the day would seem
to Mary, and how much Alice would miss her cradle. Three times before
he got outside the gate his mother called him back--once to find her
snuff-box;--once to see if there was not more color in her face than
there ought to be, an