"When do you expect to find time for all these things, Maria?" her mother continued. "Do you know what a state your bureau drawers are in, at this minute? You told me you had been too busy to attend to them. And the frock that you spilt ink on, the week before last, at school, you have not mended; and you need it—and you said you could not get a minute."
"I have been busy about something else, mamma," Maria said.
"That braiding. Yes. But there is always 'something else.' There are other things that ought to begin at home besides charity. Do you belong to this association, Matilda?"
"No, mamma," came in a low voice from the child.
"Why not?"
The answer was not ready.
"Have you joined it, Clarissa?" her mother asked.
"Yes, mamma."
"And what have you pledged yourself to do?"
"I think nothing, mamma, that I was not properly pledged to before."