"Kind of lessons I'm not fond of," laughed Lulu.
"And you've worked so hard all the evening! you must be very tired."
"Yes, I'm tired; but I'd sit up and work an hour or two longer if it wouldn't be disobedience to papa.
"Well I'll see how much I can do before breakfast to-morrow morning.
Perhaps I can finish; I hope I can."
She carried out her resolution, and when their father came in for the customary bit of chat with his little daughters before breakfast, he found her sewing diligently.
He commended her industry, particularly when Grace had told how much of it had been shown the previous evening, but added that he hoped the tasks he had set her had been first properly attended to.
"Yes, sir; I learned my lessons and wrote my composition yesterday, before I began the sewing," she replied.
"That is well," he said, "I am glad to see you willing to use some of your leisure time in working for the poor, but your education—which is to fit you for greater usefulness in the future—must not be neglected for that or anything else."
Lulu blushed with a sudden half conviction that her tasks had not been so faithfully attended to as they should have been. But it was now too late to remedy the failure, as the school hour would come very soon after breakfast and family worship.
She wished she had learned her lessons more thoroughly and spent more time and pains upon her composition, but hoped she might be able to acquit her herself better, on being called to recite, than she feared.