“No matter about the Howes any more, Aunt Ellen,” she said, smiling into the other’s frowning face. “Tell me instead what you want me to do to help you to-day? Now that I’m here you must divide the work with me so I may have my share.”
Although Ellen did not return the smile, the scowl on her forehead relaxed. 55
“You’ll find plenty to keep you busy, I guess,” she returned. “There’s all the housework to be done—dishes, beds, an’ sweepin’; an’ then there’s milk to set an’ skim; eggs to collect an’ pack for market; hens to feed; an’——”
“Goodness me!”
“You ain’t so keen on dividin’ up, eh?”
“Oh, it isn’t that,” returned Lucy quickly. “I was only thinking what a lot you had to do. No wonder you sent for me.”
It was a random remark, but it struck Ellen’s conscience with such aplomb that she flushed, dismayed.
“What do you mean?” she faltered.
As Lucy looked at her aunt, she observed the shifting glance, the crafty smile, the nervous interlacing of the fingers.
“Mean?” she returned innocently. “Why, nothing, Aunt Ellen. We must all work for a living one way or another, I suppose. If I prefer to stay here with you and earn my board there is no disgrace in it, is there?”