"Why, yes, sometimes," answered the lively young girl, "only the sermons are rather too long."
"Sermons!" exclaimed Dan and his mother in a breath; and the latter added, "I hope you get some other reading besides that."
"Oh, yes, history and travels; and then, you know, Sophy Puller lends me books to read by myself."
"What sort of books?" asked the sailor.
"Oh, delightful books!" exclaimed Norah. "I'm in the middle of one now, all about a dreadfully wicked woman who killed her husband, and I think she'll be hanged at the end—but she had great excuses you know."
"That must be jolly reading," cried Dan; but Ned Franks shook his curly head.
"I very much doubt that such reading is good for our little lass," observed he.
"Well, I own, it's very tiresome to have to leave off in the middle to sweep a room or cook a dinner," cried the girl, "but I sit up late at night to make up."
"I don't look on that Sophy Puller as your true friend," observed Ned Franks.
"Oh, don't say that—she is so kind: she wanted me to come out and spend the evening with her sometimes, when she has each fun, and dancing, and larking with her companions. I should have liked of all things to go; but when I asked mistress, she shook her head and said that she did not approve of young girls being out late at night."