As Julia and Mary did not live in the house, and were always glad to hurry home as soon as they could get permission to do so, Ellen had little opportunity for unrestrained intercourse with them, except when anything occurred to take her aunt from home.
She was obliged to go out on business one evening, and left the girls some work to finish before they went home. They worked pretty diligently, for they were anxious to get their task finished, but as they worked Julia chatted freely.
"What do you do with yourself on Sundays, Ellen?" she asked. "Don't you find it very dull here?"
"Yes, rather," Ellen admitted. "But I don't get up till late in the morning, for aunt is never in a hurry on Sundays. Then I generally write a long letter home, and in the evening, I go to church with aunt; so the time passes quickly. I like it better than sewing all the day."
"I daresay you do," returned Julia. "But, for all that, it is hard that you should not have some pleasure on the only holiday you get. I wish you could come with me for a walk next Sunday afternoon. I would take you about, and show you more of the town than you have yet seen."
"Thank you," replied Ellen. "I should like to take a walk with you, if aunt would let me, but I know it is of no use to ask her. For the other Sunday I asked her if I might take a little stroll by myself, and she answered me so crossly, and said it was 'not seemly for young girls to be gadding about the streets alone.'"
"Well, I must say I don't envy you, Ellen, being shut up the whole of the day with that old cross-patch," Julia said, with a laugh.
"No, I don't like it at all," rejoined Ellen discontentedly. "I get dreadfully tired of being always indoors. At home, I never used to stay in the house for more than an hour at a time, but here I can scarcely ever get out."
"I wonder if you would like to go with me to my Bible-class?" said Mary Nelson, looking up from her work. "I should think your aunt would have no objection to that."
"What is a Bible-class like?" asked Ellen. "I have never been to one."