“I have been thinking that poor Jack needs those shirts directly, and that you could not make him a pair in less than two, perhaps in not less than three weeks. So I don’t see how you can help him out of his present trouble.”
Jessie sighed, and said, “I didn’t think of that.”
“Well, I have a plan to propose. I will send him two of Guy’s shirts to-morrow, and you shall make two new ones for Guy, at your leisure.”
“What a dear, good, nice mother you are,” cried Jessie, running to Mrs. Carlton, and giving her more kisses than I am able to count.
Thus did a mother’s love find a key with which to unlock Jessie’s puzzle, and to enable her to help poor Jack, without breaking her purpose to finish Uncle Morris’s things, and thereby drive that plague of her life, the little wizard, away from Glen Morris.
“I will work ever so hard, see if I don’t, Ma,” said she, as she patted her mother’s cheek. “I will finish the slippers, and get the shirts done, too, before Christmas. Don’t you think I can?”
“You can, I have no doubt, if you try my dear.”
“Well, I’ll try then. I’ll join Guy’s famous Try Company, and will try and try, and try again, until I fairly succeed.”
Mrs. Carlton kissed her daughter affectionately; after which the now light-hearted girl bounded out of the room, singing—