do work entrusted to us just as well as we possibly can."

"Oh, well, you're one of the saints, you know. If it's saintship to be
rude and call other people thieves I'm glad I'm a sinner, that's all. I
guess we'll catch the saint in a slip before long, don't you, girls?"
said she, appealing to several other idlers who naturally congregated
around a bird of the same feather as themselves.

Bertie and Katie did not walk home together any more. The former, never
having finished her work, was always obliged to remain in the mill till
the closing-bell rang, while the former went home, as we have seen, at
four o'clock, and at noon she was generally met by her brothers.

"Eric," she said on the day of the above conversation, "do you think
it's right to idle and talk instead of doing your work?"

"We can't in the bindery; the machine won't let us. Everything would go
to thunder if we looked off."

"But suppose you could, and nobody knew anything about it?"

"They couldn't fine you if they didn't know," said Alfred, whose ideas
of the righteousness of law were modified by the possibility of escaping
its penalty.

"What difference would that make?" said Eric. "God would know."

"Yes," said Katie, "I always wish the words 'Thou God seest me,' were
written up on the walls of the mill. It helps you not to get tired and
want to stop."

"Do you ever want to stop, Katie?" said her brother, tenderly.

"Yes, lots of times, It's just the same thing day after day, no change,
no variety, the dust suffocates you, and it's so hard to get up in the
morning, and"--

"Sho!" shouted Alfred, "I thought you'd sing a different tune after you'd
been in the factory a little while. Don't you remember I told you
so?"

"Katie," said Eric, "you remember _I_ told you that you should not work
one moment longer than you wanted to. A girl with two strong brothers to
support her need not work for her living unless she chooses to. Do you
want to stop now?"

"I _want_ to, ever so much," said the girl, "but I don't _mean_ to. Do
you think I am a baby to begin a thing and then leave it off again?
There's just as much reason as there ever was for my earning money. I'm
not going to be dependent upon you, and mother is growing older every
day. Do you remember what the Bible says about those who put their hands
to the plough and look back? I don't mean to be one of those; and I mean
to pray every day," she said more softly, "that I may be more patient