But Kitty did not keep her resolution long,—no longer than till she went up home and found Nelly sitting upon the new front step, reading her Testament. She had not been that way before, since the repairs began, and could not help stopping to observe them.
"Oh, Kitty, is that you?" exclaimed Nelly, springing up to meet her. "Come in and see how nice we look! I have been watching for you all the afternoon."
Kitty could not, for very shame, repel Nelly's affectionate greeting.
"Why, you do look real nice! And what a pretty bench!"
"And just think, Kitty; I paid for it all myself; out of the money that I earned this summer!" said Nelly. "I 'tatted' it," she added, laughing. "Just think of making a fence and a front stoop all out of tatting!"
"I can't learn to make tatting," said Kitty. "I tried a whole hour one day, and I could not get it."
"Oh, I worked at it a great deal longer than that," replied Nelly. "I don't know how many hours I kept at it; and then, when I did learn it, I forgot it again. I did feel discouraged then,—after I had worked so long, and then to find, when I tried again, that I could not do it, after all. But I stuck to it, and by-and-by it came back to me. I don't believe but I could show you how to do it."
"Oh, I don't care," said Kitty; "I wouldn't take the trouble. Why don't you come to say your lessons now?" she asked, attempting to speak indifferently. "Have you got tired of them?"
"Why, Kitty, I thought you did not want to hear me any more," said Nelly. "You sent for your slate; you know. Mrs. Caswell hears my lessons now," she added. "I read and say an arithmetic and spelling lesson to her every day,—the arithmetic one day and the spelling the next. She says I am getting on nicely."
"I didn't know you knew Mrs. Caswell," said Kitty.