"Nelly, if I pay you ten cents beforehand, will you be sure that I shall not lose by it? Then you can buy a nice new spelling-book, instead of an old one; but you will only have sixty-five cents, instead of seventy-five, when you bring home your work."
"I should like it," said Nelly; "only I might be sick, or something, and then I couldn't pay you."
Mrs. Kirkland smiled. "I will run the risk of that. Here is your money, then; and I hope you will make your book very profitable."
"If you like to wait a little while, Nelly, I will go to the book-store with you," said Miss Powell. "I am going that way in about half an hour. You can sit down here by me and begin your work, if your hands are clean. Let me look at them."
Nelly had washed her face and hands with unusual care before leaving home, and she presented them with considerable confidence; but Miss Powell pointed out several places on the sides of the fingers which were certainly far from clean.
"I can't help it," said Nelly. "I rubbed and rubbed, but it wouldn't come off."
"Well, never mind. We will perhaps find a way to remedy it. Wind your shuttle full of thread, in the first place."
Nelly filled her shuttle, and was soon happily at work. Miss Powell showed her the best way of holding the shuttle, and how to pass the thread through her fingers without letting go her hold, by which she was enabled to work much more rapidly. Presently the lady she had seen below in the shop came up-stairs. She first stared and then laughed, as she saw Nelly on the stool by Miss Powell's side. Nelly, on her part, gave her a glance which was any thing but friendly, and then turned her stool entirely round, so as to bring her face to the window.
"Well, I declare! What airs!" said the lady, laughing. "One would think she was, an earl's daughter in disguise, at the very least."
Nelly smiled proudly as she remembered the Butlers of Glengall, and thought perhaps the lady was nearer the truth than she supposed.