"And so I am. I help Mrs. Tremaine with the work and wait on Miss Tilly now she is lame, but I have plenty of time still. So I learn each day an arithmetic and a grammar lesson, and say them in the evening to Mrs. Tremaine, and I learn sewing of Miss Tilly, and Kitty and I read French together."
"French!" said Marion, in surprise.
"Yes; Mrs. Tremaine and Miss Kitty speak it like natives of Paris, and madame says it is a pity for me to lose my own tongue, because it may be of use to me some day, so Kitty and I speak it together, and sometimes we sing it as well."
"Really!" said Marion, rather sarcastically. "You will be quite accomplished. And don't you have any time to amuse yourself?"
"Oh yes, indeed. I work in the garden and embroider and play with the cats, for we have three cats, you must know, like Cadet Roussel;" and Therese began to sing like a bobolink the little child's song,—
"Charles Roussel, a trois grands chats."
"You are always in good spirits, Therese," said Marion, with a little sigh.
"Why, yes," answered Therese, simply; "why not? Every one is very good to me; and only that mamma will live here alone, I should be quite happy. If I could only be in two places at once, I should have nothing to wish for," she concluded, laughing merrily.
"But don't you really wish for anything that you can't get?"
"To be sure; plenty of things. I wish for a new dress for Sundays, and a new roof to our house, which leaks dreadfully up-stairs sometimes; and when I pass the book-store and Whitaker's, I wish for new story-books and chocolates. And I wish—oh, I wish so much—that I could go to school to dear Miss Oliver."