“I can’t, unless you’ll darn them for me. There are eight pairs, and they ought to be done to-night ready for the morning.”
“Well, take your chair and sit between them, to keep them apart.”
“What’s the use of that? If Jack were here and Jem in Australia, they’d quarrel somehow. How industrious you are to-night, Edie!”
“Well, as you’re the only person that’s tired, of course it’s quite fair that you should do nothing.”
“Madge, if you’d asked me civilly to help you, I’d have done so in a minute, but sneering won’t make me, you may be quite sure of that. Why don’t you ask Bessie to do some work?”
“Because she’s younger, and it doesn’t matter so much about her.”
“Madge, get me that little oil-can that your mother uses for the sewing-machine.”
“Yes, father.... Here it is.”
“Madge, there’s baby crying. Run up and rock him to sleep again.”