owards the close of February Nelly caught a very severe cold, which kept her indoors for several days. One night her cough had been so bad that she had scarcely slept at all, and when she got up in the morning, with flushed cheeks and hollow eyes, unrested and unrefreshed, granny insisted that she was not fit to go out, and that she must stay indoors and keep herself warm.
Benny was very sorry to lose her earnings, for, alas! it had been a hard struggle for the children to find the necessary coppers day by day to purchase food and pay for their lodgings; and had it not been for Joe Wrag's kindness, they would often have fared much worse. Nelly knew this very well, and hence it was a great trial to her to stay indoors doing nothing, while her Benny was out fighting the world alone.
"How will yer manage, Benny?" she said, with an anxious look in her eyes, the first morning that he went out alone.
"Oh, never fear, Nell, I'll 'cumulate the coppers somehow," was the response.
"What's 'cumulate, Benny?" for it was the first time he had ventured to use that word in her hearing.
"Well, I might a-knowed," he said, putting on a knowing look, "that you would not hundercumstand sich words, 'cause as how you don't seem to care for larnin' like me."
"Well, you 'ave not told me now, Benny."
"Oh, it means as how I'm bound to get the coppers somehow."