Aunt Jane was really glad to. Helen kept the two girls busy until the things were put away and the kitchen tidied up. The fire was out and the room getting cooler. The girls clung so to Helen, that she felt as if she would be torn in two. And sitting on the steps they wanted to know about the queer old woman, and didn't Mrs. Dayton make a pile of money? 'Reely thought when she was grown up she would keep boarders and have a servant. Did Joanna do everything?
"Oh, no. Mrs. Dayton helps, and I do a good many things when Mrs. Van Dorn does not want me."
"Is she very cross?"
"Oh, no," with a laugh of amusement.
"Not as cross as mother?" with childish frankness.
"You all annoy Aunt Jane so," returned Helen. "If you would go at once and do as she tells you, and try to remember."
"But I forget so easily," moaned Aurelia. "And I just hate to work."
"What would you like to do?"
"Play, and go out in the woods, and nutting. Oh, when will it be nut time? And then there's school."