"But can't I help you?" asked Susie. "I shouldn't like you to do everything."
"You can't help me get money," said Elfie evasively.
"Oh, I won't mind going into the market with you, if you'll ask the men to let me mind the baskets as well as you," said Susie.
Elfie laughed. "You couldn't," she said.
"Oh yes, I could—I would," added Susie. "I'd do anything to earn some money."
"Could you fight the boys if they came to take the things?" asked Elfie.
Susie shook her head, and looked greatly disappointed. "Oh, what can I do?" she said. "This is the last lot of shirts I shall have to make, and I must do something to earn some money."
Elfie thought for a minute or two of all the means she had tried to earn money, but there was only one in which Susie was likely to succeed.
"You might clean doorsteps," she said slowly.
"Oh yes; mother taught me how to clean the hearth and scrub the floor," said Susie quickly.