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“The next time I saw Mr. Maynard he put both his hands on my shoulders and said:  ’You are a brave girl; I wish I could forgive you; but remember your promise.’  And that was the last word Mr. Maynard spoke to me for three years.

“Our new home was so much pleasanter than we supposed it could be, that at first, in spite of our grief, both Nat and I were almost gay.  It was like a sort of picnic, or playing at housekeeping.  The rooms were sunny and cozy.  Rich people in splendid houses do not dream how pleasant poor people’s little rooms can be, if the sun shines in and there are a few pretty things.  We kept all the books which could ever be of use to Nat, and a picture of the Sistine Madonna which Mr. Maynard had given us on the last Christmas Day, and papa’s and mamma’s portraits.  The books, and these, made our little sitting-room look like home.  We had only two rooms on the first floor; one of these was a tiny one, but it held our little cooking-stove and a cupboard, with our few dishes; the other we called ‘sitting-room;’ it had to be dear Nat’s bedroom also, because he could not be carried up and down stairs.  But I made a chintz curtain, which shut off his bed from sight, and really made the room look prettier, for I put it across a corner and had a shelf put up above it, on which Nat’s stuffed owl sat.  My room was over Nat’s, and a cord went up from his bed to a bell over mine, so that he could call me at any moment if he wanted anything in the night.  Then we had one more little chamber, in which we kept the boxes of papa’s sermons, and some trunks of old clothes, and things which nobody wanted to buy at the auction, and papa’s big chair and writing-table.  We would not sell those.  I thought perhaps some day we should have a house of our own—­I could not imagine how; but if we did we should be glad of that chair and table, and so Aunt Abby let us keep them, though they were of handsome wood, beautifully carved, and would have brought a good deal of money.  For these four rooms we paid Miss Penstock three dollars a month; the rent would have been a dollar a week, but she said it was really worth a dollar a month to her to have people who would not trouble her nor hurt the house; and as Aunt Abby thought so too, I believed her.

“My plan was to have Nat keep on at school, and to take in sewing myself, or to work for Miss Penstock.  For the first year all went so smoothly that I was content.  I used to draw Nat to and from school twice a day, and that gave me air and exercise.  Everybody was very kind in giving me sewing, and I earned four and five dollars a week.  We did not have to buy any clothes, and so we laid up a little money.  But the next year people did not give me so much sewing; they had given it to me the first year because they were sorry for us, but now they had forgotten.  Very often I would sit idle a whole week, with no work.  Then I used to read and study, but I could not enjoy anything,