"Oh, well, I don't know about the cotton! Mr. Brading says my duties will be in the counting-house under the accountant most of the time, though I may occasionally have to help at the cashier's desk in the shop. There! Now you know the best and the worst of it, and I hope Hannah won't keep me much longer without my tea," concluded Arthur.
Molly sprang to her feet in a moment. "How stupid I am not to remember that there is only one servant now! We told Hannah she might have a half-holiday this afternoon, and forgot all about getting the tea. It shall be ready soon," added Molly, as she went out of the room.
She was just stirring the kitchen fire and trying to make the kettle boil when Arthur came in.
"I thought as much," he said, as he looked at the black grate. "Here, let me have the wood while you set the things on the tray, and then I will carry it into the dining-room while you cut the bread and butter. Why shouldn't we learn to help ourselves?" he added, as he stirred the little bit of fire into a blaze with the help of two or three sticks of wood.
"Well, you are clever!" said Molly, when she heard the kettle singing the next minute. "Hannah filled the scuttle with coals, and she said I should want all of them to keep the fire going and make the kettle boil for tea. But I forgot there was nobody out here to look after things, and so it went quite low."
"And we have saved a scuttle of coals," remarked Arthur. "It will pay to let Hannah have half-holidays if we save coals like that. Unless you very much dislike getting tea ready," he added.
"But I don't, Arthur. You know I always do like doing things for myself. I should not mind doing all the sweeping and dusting, if people did not know; but you see, if people were to hear that we did not keep even one servant it would be so dreadful!"
"For Mamma, you mean?"
"For all of us—you and all, Arthur. Oh, no, we could not do without a servant! Though Hannah is very tiresome and wastes things dreadfully. But is it quite settled that you are going to this shop? I can see Annie is very much upset about it, and I do think we ought to study our friends a little; don't you, dear?"
"Yes, I do, if we can manage it; but then if we can't, what then?"