"Very well, dearest; I will not trouble you any more." She stooped and kissed the sad, hopeless face, and went downstairs.
As she passed the nursery, Isabel peeped out. "Nellie, can't you find us anything to do?" she said, whispering; "we are so miserable, and nurse doesn't like us to play."
Nellie entered, and found the nurse—whose eyes were swollen with crying—holding the baby on her lap, and rocking him backwards and forwards in the most forlorn way.
"Poor dear children," she said, speaking in a hushed voice; "we must find something to do. Supposing I bring you some work that I have ready cut-out for the missionary basket?"
Mary looked surprised. "Oh, Miss Nellie," she said, "how can they bear to?"
"Mamma would have wished them to be employed," answered Nellie, gravely and firmly; "she would have been so sorry for them, Mary."
Mary burst into tears, and hugged the baby, while Nellie went for the work.
"You can think and talk of where dear mamma is, darlings, just the same," she said when she came back. "And all the better that you are carrying out one of her wishes, to see the basket filled."
The little girls looked up comforted, and she continued, "We cannot but be sad for many a long day, but we must all try to be busy in doing what she would wish us; must we not, darlings?"
"Can I have some work?" asked Dolly, "to help mamma's basket?"