"Sure he'd not be cross to you, and you coming to put money in his pocket," returned granny, slightly mollified by the sight and smell of her favourite refreshment, "and you looking and speaking as pretty as a born lady, which you are! What did he tell you, dear?"
"He told me to come again to-morrow afternoon, and he would see what he could do," replied Nelly. "He would hardly believe I had earned so much by my work; and I dare say he means to go and ask Mrs. Kirkland herself about it. But come, granny; do light your pipe and be comfortable, and I will tell you all about it while I am getting supper ready. I am afraid we shall be late with the milk."
It was not from any love of the smoke that Nelly urged granny to light her pipe; but she knew from long experience that granny's good humour was very much a matter of physical sensation. When she was comfortable, she was usually amiable; when she was uncomfortable, she was almost always cross. Mr. Grayson's tobacco was of very superior quality, and granny's spirits rose with the smoke she puffed out, till she was ready to believe that Mr. Grayson not only meant to allow them to remain in the house, but intended to make them a present of it out and out.
Nelly was not so sanguine as that. She did not expect Mr. Grayson to give them the house, nor did she see any reason why he should do so. The most she hoped was that he would allow them to remain where they were and pay for the place by degrees; and she determined in her own mind that every shilling she could spare from her earnings should go for that purpose. She finished up her work, and then set out to carry round her milk, not forgetting to take her book with her that she might read to Kitty Brown.
Kitty was secretly growing rather tired of these lessons. As long as she was decidedly Nelly's superior in learning, she was very willing to teach her, and felt a pleasant sense of patronage in so doing. But now Nelly read and wrote as well as Kitty, if not better; she had learned several sorts of work which Kitty did not know, and was always asking questions which Kitty could not answer, especially about the Bible. Kitty felt it rather a reproach to herself that Nelly, who had only been to Sunday-school six months in all her life, and hardly ever heard of a Bible before that time, should care so much more about it than she did; and it annoyed her whenever Nelly talked about heaven, as she was very fond of doing.
All these feelings were, perhaps, no more than natural. Kitty might not be able to help having them, in the first place; but she could have helped entertaining and dwelling upon them till she nourished up a spirit of envy and jealousy towards her friend which made her feel like saying and doing almost any thing disagreeable and spiteful. Hence, when Nelly produced her Testament and proposed to read over the next Sunday's lesson, Kitty answered, pettishly enough, that she hadn't time.
"It won't be but a minute, you know," pleaded Nelly, whose heart was full of things that she wished to talk over with her friend; "and it is such an interesting lesson! And oh, Kitty, Miss Powell was talking to me this morning, down at the store, about heaven; and she says,—"
"You are always talking about what Miss Powell says, as if she was the only person in the world," interrupted Kitty. "I guess my Sunday-school teacher knows as much as she does, any day."
"I am sure I never said she didn't," said Nelly, a good deal hurt by Kitty's tone and manner; "only, you know, we have always been over the lessons together; and I thought you would like to hear what she told me. I am sure I did. I don't hardly know what I should have done to-day, only for that. It seemed—" added Nelly, reverently, "it seemed just as though God sent it to me on purpose."
"Yes; that's very likely," said Kitty, half to herself, as she wrung out her cloth with a good deal more energy than was necessary. "Do you suppose God thinks so much more of you than he does of any one else, as all that comes to?"