olly could not
get from her father the means to pay the wages of her remaining
servant. This was towards the beginning of summer.

Dolly pondered now very seriously what she should do. The lack of a
housemaid she had made up quite comfortably with her own two busy
hands; Mrs. Copley at least had been in particular comfort, whenever
she did not get a fit of fretting on Dolly's account; and Dolly herself
had been happy, though unquestionably the said hands had been very
busy. Now what lay before her was another thing. She could not consult
her mother, and there was nobody else to consult; she must even make up
her mind as to the line of duty the best way she might; and however the
difficulty and even the impossibility of doing without anybody stared
her in the face, it was constantly met by the greater impossibility of
taking what she could not pay for. Dolly made up her mind on the
negative view of the case; what she _could_ being not clear, only what
she could not. She would dismiss her remaining servant, and do the
cooking herself. It would be only for two. And perhaps, she thought,
this step would go further to bring her father to his senses than any
other step she could take.

Dolly, however, went wisely to work. Quite alone in the house she and
her mother could not be. She went to her friend Mrs. Jersey and talked
the matter over with her; and through her got a little girl, a small
farmer's daughter, to come and do the rough work. She let her mother
know as little as possible about the matter; she took some of her own
little stock and paid off the cook, representing to her mother no more
than that she had exchanged the one helpmeet for the other. But poor
Dolly found presently that she did not know how to cook. How should she?

"What's become of all our good bread?" said Mrs. Copley, a day or two
after the change. "And, Dolly, I don't know what you call this, but if
it is meant for hash, it is a mistake."

Dolly heard in awed silence; and when dinner and breakfast had seen
repeated animadversions of the like kind, she made up her mind again
and took her measures. She went to her friend Mrs. Jersey, and asked
her to teach her to make bread.

"To make bread!" the good housekeeper repeated in astonishment. "You,
Miss Dolly? Can that be necessary?"

"Mother cannot eat poor bread," said Dolly simply. "And there is nobody
but me to make it. I think I can learn, Mrs. Jersey; cannot I?"

The tears stood in the good