impressed Rose very much.

"It must be fun to swash the water round and dig out the soap. I'd love
to do it, only aunt wouldn't like it, I suppose," said Rose, quite taken
with the new employment.

"You'd soon get tired, so you'd better keep tidy and look on."

"I suppose you help your mother a good deal?"

"I haven't got any folks."

"Why, where do you live, then?"

"I'm going to live here, I hope. Debby wants some one to help round, and
I've come to try for a week."

"I hope you will stay, for it is very dull," said Rose, who had taken a
sudden fancy to this girl, who sung like a bird and worked like a woman.

"Hope I shall; for I'm fifteen now, and old enough to earn my own
living. You have come to stay a spell, haven't you?" asked Phebe,
looking up at her guest and wondering how life could be dull to a girl
who wore a silk frock, a daintily frilled apron, a pretty locket, and
had her hair tied up with a velvet snood.

"Yes, I shall stay till my uncle comes. He is my guardian now, and I
don't know what he will do with me. Have you a guardian?"

"My sakes, no! I was left on the poor-house steps a little mite of
a baby, and Miss Rogers took a liking to me, so I've been there ever
since. But she is dead now, and I take care of myself."

"How interesting! It is like Arabella Montgomery in the 'Gypsy's Child.'
Did you ever read that sweet story?" asked Rose, who was fond of tales
of found-lings, and had read many.

"I don't have any books to read, and all the spare time I get I run off
into the woods; that rests me better than stories," answered Phebe, as
she finished one job and began on another.

Rose watched her as she got out a great pan of beans to look over, and
wondered how it would seem to have life all work and no play. Presently
Phebe seemed to think it was her turn to ask questions, and said,
wistfully,

"You've had lots of schooling, I suppose?"

"Oh, dear me, yes! I've been at boarding school nearly a year, and I'm
almost dead with lessons. The more I got, the more Miss Power gave me,
and I was so miserable that I 'most cried my eyes out. Papa never gave
me hard things to do, and he always taught me so pleasantly I loved to
study. Oh, we were so happy and so fond of one another! But now he is
gone, and I am left all alone."

The tear that would not come when Rose sat waiting for it came now of
its own accord two of them in fact and rolled down her cheeks, telling
the tale of love and sorr