Maggie, who was only sixteen herself, almost skipped down the passage. After the iron reign of Mrs. Power, to work for Polly seemed like play to her.
“She’s a duck,” she said to herself, “a real cozy duck of a young lady. Oh, my word, won’t we spin through the stores this week! Won’t we just!”
Meanwhile Polly was hastily getting into her clothes. She did not wish to wake Helen, for she was most anxious that no one should know that on the first morning of her housekeeping she had arisen soon after six o’clock. Her plans were all laid beforehand, and a wonderfully methodical and well arranged programme, considering her fourteen years, was hers; she was all agog with eagerness to carry it out.
“Oh, won’t they have a breakfast this morning,” she said to herself. “Won’t they open their eyes, and won’t Bob and Bunny look greedy. And Firefly—I must watch Firefly over those hot cakes, or she may make herself sick. Poor father and Nell—they’ll both be afraid at first that I’m a little too lavish and inclined to be extravagant, but they’ll see by-and-by, and they’ll acknowledge deep down in their hearts that there never was such a housekeeper as Polly.”
As the little maid dreamed these pleasant thoughts she scrambled somewhat untidily into her clothes, gave her hair a somewhat less careful brush than usual, and finally knelt down to say her morning prayer. Helen still slept, and Polly by a sudden impulse chose to kneel by Helen’s bed and not her own. She pressed her curly head against the mattress, and eagerly whispered her petitions. She was excited and sanguine, for this was to her a moment of triumph; but as she prayed a feeling of rest and yet of longing overpowered her.
“Oh, I am happy to-day,” she murmured—“but oh, mother, oh, mother, I’d give everything in all the wide world to have you back again! I’d live on bread and water—I’d spend years in a garret just for you to kiss me once again, mother, mother!”
Helen stirred in her sleep, for Polly’s last impulsive words were spoken aloud.
“Has mother come back?” she asked.
Her eyes were closed, she was dreaming. Polly bent down and answered her.
“No,” she said. “It is only me—the most foolish of all her children, who wants her so dreadfully.”