"I hope you don't think there is any fun in that."
"But, Maria!——"
"Well, what?"
"I think there is something a great deal better than fun."
"You may have it all then, for me."
"Maria," said her little sister, gently, "I wish you wouldn't mind. Mamma will get well by and by, and this will be all over; and we are getting along so nicely. Aunt Candy was quite pleased with the dinner."
"There's another dinner to get to-morrow," said Maria; "and I don't know what you mean by this being 'all over' when mamma gets well. What difference will her getting well make? She will help, to be sure; but we should have the same things to do—just the same."
Matilda had not reckoned on that, for she looked sober a minute or two.
"Well, Maria," she said then, clearing up, "I don't care. If Jesus has given us this to do, you know, I like to do it; because He has given it to us to do."
Maria turned away impatiently.