"I am sure I don't know, Wiseli," said the joiner, gently. "I shall be glad to have you do exactly as you please, if you will stay with me a while first and keep me company."
Wiseli could scarcely believe she had heard aright. Nobody but her mother had ever spoken to her like that. Her first thought was that her mother would be glad if she knew how kind he was. There was the same tenderness in his tones that she used to feel in the mother's, and she unconsciously loved him in the same way. She took his hand in both of hers and chatted with him as freely as if she had always known him.
"I am afraid I ought to be getting dinner," she said at length; "what should you like to have me cook for you?"
"I want you to have just what you like," replied the joiner.
This, however, did not satisfy Wiseli, for she desired above all else to please him, so she asked question after question until she found out what she wanted to know. She knew how to make the soup he said he liked, and she realized now that she had learned many useful things from her aunt, even if they had been taught without kindness. Wiseli prepared the joiner's dinner on a tray and carried it to him.
"I wish you would draw the little table over here and eat your dinner with me," said the joiner. "Mine will taste so much better if you will."
Wiseli was again surprised, but she said, "That is just what mamma would have said."
What a pleasant dinner that was! The joiner was so considerate of Wiseli's comfort that it made the humblest task a pleasure to her.