"Yes, if you'll be careful not to make any trouble for him and Phœbe, and will come home before supper-time."
Tommy, who was standing behind Jessie in the doorway, suppressed the hurrah that rose to his lips. He remembered that it was Sunday and that his mother would not approve of his making a great noise on the holy day.
He and Jessie had quite a hard tramp to the little chapel in which the school was held. The graveled sidewalks were covered with that uncomfortable mixture of snow and water known as slush, which beside being wet was cold and slippery, so that walking was no easy thing. Yet what did that matter after they had reached the school?
Their teachers were there, and so was the superintendent, and so were nearly half of the scholars. Theirs was a wide-awake school, you see, and it did not close on account of weather.
Each of the girls in Jessie's class was asked to recite a verse that she had chosen through the week. Jessie's was this:
"To do good and to communicate forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased."
The teacher talked a little about it and Jessie thought it over on her way to Gardener Jim's. The result was that she said to her brother:
"Tommy, you know mother said we must not trouble Jim and Phœbe."
"Yes, I know it, but I don't think we will, do you?"
"No, I'm sure they'll be glad to see us, but I was thinking we might do something to make them very glad. Suppose that while we're in there, I read to them from the Bible, and then we sing to them two or three of our hymns."