"Lovely!" answered Minnie.
"Awfully nice!" answered Alice.
And Agnes murmured thanks with a sigh of relief, for that hour in the day had been one of her trials.
"What work have you in hand?" asked their aunt.
"Minnie is making a doll's dress, and I have just finished some horrid white calico."
"It must be real, sensible work," said Miss Headley. "How about stockings?"
"Agnes mends those," answered Minnie; "it nearly made her cry to teach Alice, and she gave it up; and I haven't begun to learn."
"Oh, auntie," she explained, "I know I got out of patience, but I would ten times rather do it myself than make Alice."
"I don't believe I was very nice over it," said Alice in a low tone; "but it is nasty work!"