"Yes, Miss Nancy. It is about all she has to depend upon."
"Just so. Now, Ben, I will tell you what I will do. Father keeps me pretty close myself, as far as money goes, but we have plenty in the house of groceries and such things as your aunt will need to have. Now, will it do just as well if I give you the balance that you have earned in that form?"
"It will do just as well, Miss Nancy, and I am very much obliged to you for your kindness."
"I am not kind, only just," said Nancy. "I don't think it honest to pay too little for work, nor father, either, for that matter, only he doesn't always set the right value on it. Maggie, you may bring me the large covered basket in the back room up-stairs."
Maggie brought the basket at once, and Miss Nancy went with it into the storeroom, or buttery. She tied up various parcels of sugar, tea, and flour, and added two loaves of bread and a couple of pies, quite filling the basket.
"There," she said, "I guess you'll find a dollar and a half's worth of articles here. Give my love to your aunt, and tell her from me that they are not a gift, but that you have fairly earned them."
"Thank you, Miss Nancy," said Ben, overjoyed at his good luck. "You may say you are not kind, but I am sure you are."
Miss Nance was really pleased by this recognition of her attempt to do justice.
"If it's kindness," she said, "you are very welcome. Do you find it hard to get along, Benjamin?"
"Pretty hard, since I have lost my place at the factory, Miss Nancy."