Nellie turned once more to the Bible, but deigned no answer to this outburst.
Carrie looked back from the door, which she had reached on her way from the room, and said in a tone one shade less furious than her last,—
"You're always poking over your Bible now, but it don't seem to teach you to be kind. You grow crosser and crosser every day; and you're not one bit like you used to be."
"Carrie!" called Mrs. Ransom's gentle voice from the next room; and Carrie vanished, leaving Nellie, as she had said she wished to be, alone.
Did her work go smoothly after that?
Not very, at least for a few moments. Perhaps mamma had heard all that had passed, and Nellie did not feel quite satisfied that she should have done so. What had she said to Carrie? She could hardly recollect herself, so divided had been her attention between her little sister and the task before her; but she was quite certain that she had been "cross," and spoken to Carrie in an unkind manner, apart from her refusal to accompany the child, who, she well knew, had been confined to the house for the last few days, and deprived of her usual play and exercise in the open air.
But then Carrie might just as well have waited patiently a few moments till she was ready to go, and not bothered her so. She would go presently when she had looked out three—well, no—five—six more verses, and written them out; and once more she took up the Bible.
But the words before her eyes mingled themselves with those which were sounding in her ears.
"Not like she used to be! Crosser and crosser every day!"