"If I have, I don't need you to teach it to me," said nurse.
"No," said Maggie, "I am not going to teach you, 'cause you are old, and I am little, but I am just going to enter an ex-plan-a-tion for you, 'cause you don't seem to understand."
At this, Jane, who was dressing Bessie began to giggle, and nurse put her head into the wardrobe, where the children's dresses lay.
"Now," Maggie went on, "you see Miss Winslow thinks it is her duty to go and teach those log-cabin children, and that's her missionary work; and it's Bessie's duty and mine to help her if we can, so it's our missionary work to buy the library; and it's your duty to dress us if we get ourselves wet while we earn the money, so that's your missionary work; and you ought to do it with a cheerful mind, and not scold us."
Nurse tried to look grum, but the corners of her mouth were twitching, and when she had fastened Maggie's dress, she gave her a hug and a kiss which did not seem as though she were very angry.
As soon as the little girls had run away to their mamma's room, nurse and Jane laughed heartily.
"Well, well," said nurse, "to hear the reasoning of her! And she has the right of it, too, bless her heart, and just shames her old mammy."
After this, there was no more grumbling about the wet dresses.
One night there was a hard storm, and in the morning, when the children went out, they found that the rain had washed sand and gravel all over their precious peach-stones. This, of course, must be attended to immediately, and it was quite a piece of work, for by this time they had collected seven or eight hundred.