"Oh no, Aunt Janie; she stuck up for him. She said we ought to make allowances for him as he has no brother or sister; she likes him, she does indeed." Polly paused, looking slightly distressed, conscious she had been letting her tongue run away with her. "I'm afraid you don't like Cousin Becky," she proceeded hesitatingly, "but you don't know how kind she is to us."
"I think it is you, or your parents rather, who are kind to her."
"She pays for living with us," said Polly. "Father wouldn't allow her to do that if he was better off—he said so—but you know he is not rich like Uncle John, and—oh, I don't like to think how we should miss her if she went away now! She helps us with our lessons, and she's always doing things for mother; why, she made this frock! Isn't it pretty?" And the little girl arose and turned slowly round in front of her aunt that she might the better view Cousin Becky's handiwork.
"Yes, it is very nicely made," Mrs. Marsh allowed. "I expect Cousin Becky is accustomed to work for young people as she brought up her brother's children. By the way, does she ever hear from them?"
"Oh yes."
"Do they send her money, Polly?"
"I don't know, Aunt Janie, I don't think so. She reads their letters to mother, I've heard her; they write very nice letters."
"And you never heard any mention made of money? No? Dear me, what ingratitude! They ought to be contributing to her support, and so I should like to tell them. Why, she was like a mother to those children of her brother's, and to think that after devoting her life to them and their father, she should fall back upon Martin for a home in her old age—as though he had not enough weight upon his shoulders without burdening himself with an additional care! I have always declared he will live to rue the day when he took the charge of an old woman who never had the least claim upon him. Cousin Becky should have gone abroad to her nephew."
"But, Aunt Janie, she didn't wish to go, and I am sure, now, it would grieve us all dreadfully if she went." There were tears in Polly's eyes as she spoke, for Cousin Becky had won the devotion of her warm, young heart.
"It does not appear that she contemplates leaving you," Mrs. Marsh observed dryly, "so there is no cause for you to be distressed."