"I want a loaf of bread too, if you please."
"Baking failed?" said Mr. Sample. "Here, Jem, give this little girl a loaf."
He himself went to attend another customer, so Matilda paid for her purchases without any more questions being asked her. She went to another store for a little butter, and there also laid in a few herrings; and then, with a full basket and a light heart, took the way to Lilac Lane.
CHAPTER III.
Mrs. Eldridge was as she had left her yesterday; a trifle more forlorn, perhaps. The afternoon being bright and sunny, made everything in the house look more grimy and dusty for the contrast. Matilda shrank from having anything to do with it. But yet, the consciousness that she carried a basket of comfort on her arm was a great help.
"Good morning, Mrs. Eldridge; how do you do?" she said, cheerily.
"Is it that little gal?"
"Yes, it is I, Mrs. Eldridge. I said I would come back. How do you do, to-day?"
"I'm most dead," said the poor woman. Matilda was startled; but looking again, could not see that her face threatened anything like it. She rather thought Mrs. Eldridge was tired of life; and she did not wonder.