ot 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 no