"And you just dress yourself up by-and-by and come down to the store, to see your own Nelly up behind the counter, waiting on the ladies, as grand as Mrs. Kirkland or Miss Alice herself."
"And a fine place, to be sure, for the grand-daughter of an Irish earl, to be selling such things!" grumbled the old woman. "But I'll not deny that they have been kind to you; and your purty little fingers do look more fit for silks and laces than to be handling slop-pails."
"You'll see," said Nelly, exulting in her success. "May-be, some day, we'll have a nice little shop of our own. Who knows? Then you shall sit in a nice white cap and a fine shawl, like Mrs. Grayson's own, and take care of the money; and all the ladies will say, 'What a handsome woman Mrs. Ryan is!' It's easy to see where Nelly gets her good looks," added Nelly, archly.
"Get along with your blarney. You'd coax the very birds off the trees!" said Granny Ryan. "Sure I hope to see you in your own drawing-room before I die."
"And, then, think what a fine thing to know all sorts of nice work!" said Nelly. "Well, granny, I'm off. Take good care of yourself and Crummie, and I'll buy something good for supper when I come home. They are selling the spare-ribs very cheap."
Nelly succeeded even better to-day than yesterday, and very proud she felt to be left in the entire charge of the lower shop while Mrs. Kirkland went out to the bank and Miss Powell was busy up-stairs.
"It is not every little girl I would leave in this way," said Mrs. Kirkland; "but I know I can trust you, Nelly."
Nelly blushed high, and inwardly determined that she would never do any thing to forfeit this trust. She made herself as useful as possible that day and the next, and at the end of the week Mrs. Kirkland proposed to engage her at least till after the holidays, at a regular salary of three dollars a week.
"I should like it better than any thing else in the world," said Nelly; "but I don't exactly see what I am to do. I must carry around the milk in the morning and at night, and feed the cow. I don't see how I can come before nine o'clock, now the mornings are so short."
"Could not granny carry round the milk herself in the morning?" asked Mrs. Kirkland.