But it was not Nellie's way to speak when she was angry; she waited till she could do so without temper, and then said gently.
"But, Carrie, dear, you know some one had to—" give orders she was about to say, but wise little woman that she was, changed the obnoxious word—"had to say what was to be done, and mamma put me in charge there 'cause I am her housekeeper now. I had to tell you what to do with every thing."
Nellie could not help—what little girl could have helped?—a slight consciousness of authority and satisfaction in her position as mamma's right hand woman; but Carrie did not notice that so much as her words, which brought fresh cause for uneasiness to her guilty conscience. What "things" did Nellie mean? The mice?
"Is Johnny upstairs?" asked Nellie, receiving no answer to her last speech, but still wishing to make peace.
"I should think you'd know he hadn't come home from school," snapped Carrie.
"I forgot; I really don't know at all what time it is," said Nellie. "What were you doing upstairs then?"
"Let me be," was the answer Carrie gave to this; and Nellie was silent, feeling, indeed, that in such a mood she was best let alone.
Little she guessed of the cause of all this ill-temper, however.
For what had Carrie been doing upstairs? Can you imagine?