"Poor little woman! But you have such a pretty room—how kind your sister must be."
"My Babette? Ah, she is so bright, so gay. She will not let me say that we have been onlooky—oh no! She say, 'You here, I here, nevare mind any other thing.' So she coomfort me."
"And do you send this beautiful embroidery into the city?"
"Yes, I do. To an eschange for womans. I have teeket and that make me one member."
"I see; 'tis an excellent plan. But who keeps house for you?"
"Oh, that is an easy thing. I do skin off the potatoes and schop up the meat for the hash, and Babette, she do sweep with the broom and set out the table. And while we work she can tell me all there is going about outside, and I can tell how mooch bettare I am doing this day—do not you see?"
"I see you must be very happy together! But do you stay alone all day! And what if you need something, meanwhile?" she laughed.
"See?" with a comprehensive sweep of the hands, "I have everything. But for fear I do get sick, see this?"
She put out her hand to a rope dangling along the wall close beside her. "When I pull hard once Lucie, in the next house, knows that I would like to see her, but it is not bad; when I pull twice then she must indeed run quick, for I need her. She is so good, little Lucie!"
By her motions Joyce knew she was speaking of the house upon the opposite side from that where she herself had just called. So, feeling she must economize her time, and anxious to learn all she could, she asked at once,