ont windows like his. My cupboard is the best; yours is only a
three-cornered one; but that's all the difference."

"Oh, but yours don't look a bit like ours. You haven't got any bed here,
and all the chairs stand in a row, and the table shines, and the floor
is so clean, and the stove is new, and the sun comes in so bright! I
wish our room was like this! I think ours is not half so big. Why, Uncle
True stumbled over the tongs this morning, and he said there wasn't room
to swing a cat."

"Where were the tongs?" said Mrs. Sullivan.

"About the middle of the floor, marm."

"Well, you see I don't keep things in the middle of the floor. I think
if your room were all cleaned up, and places found for everything, it
would look almost as well as mine."

"I wish it could be made as nice," said Gerty; "but what could be done
with those beds?"

"I've been thinking about that. There's that little pantry--or
bathing-room, I think it must have been when this house was new, and
rich people lived in it; that's large enough to hold a small bedstead
and a chair or two; 'twould be quite a comfortable little chamber for
you. The rubbish in it might just as well be thrown away."

"Oh, that'll be nice!" said Gerty; "then Uncle True can have his bed
back again, and I'll sleep on the floor in there."

"No," said Mrs. Sullivan; "you shan't sleep on the floor. I've got a
very good little cross-legged bedstead that my Willie slept on when he
lived at home; and I'll lend it to you, if you'll take good care of it
and of everything else that is put into your room."

"Oh, I will," said Gerty. "But can I?" added she, hesitating; "do you
think I can? I don't know how to do anything."

"You never have been taught to do anything, my child; but a girl eight
years old can do many things if she is patient and tries to learn. I
could teach you to do a great deal that would be useful, and that would
help your Uncle True very much."

"What could I do?"

"You could sweep the room every day, you could make the beds, with a
little help in turning them; you could set the table, toast the bread,
and wash the dishes. Perhaps you would not do these things so well at
first; but you would keep improving, and get to be a nice little
housekeeper."

"Oh, I wish I could do something for Uncle True!" said Gerty; "but how
could I ever begin?"

"In the first place, you must have things cleaned up for you. If I
thought Mr. Flint would like it, I'd get Kate M'