"Oh, but I am now, mamma," said Maria.
"She has undertaken to practise for the school singing."
"I didn't," said Maria. "I only said I would help in it."
"Your help will not be worth much without practising. She has promised to undertake temperance work, too. How she will manage it, I do not know; unless she is going to begin upon us here at home. We are all such hard drinkers."
"Almost all the Sunday-School are engaged to help in temperance work," said Maria, standing on her defence.
"How are you going to do anything?" her mother asked. "You have neither brothers, nor father, nor cousins, in danger, that you can go to work upon them. What are you going to do, Maria?"
"That is but the beginning, mamma," Anne went on. "Maria is also engaged to visit the sick and afflicted, and make soup and give medicine for them."
"Why, I did not, Anne!" Maria exclaimed again.
"What did you mean, then, by joining the 'Aid and Comfort' committee?"
"I did not say I would make soup, or give medicine. Everybody does not make soup."