Wiseli could scarcely believe she had heard aright. Nobody but her mother had ever spoken to her like that. Her first thought was that her mother would be glad if she knew how kind he was. There was the same tenderness in his tones that she used to feel in the mother's, and she unconsciously loved him in the same way. She took his hand in both of hers and chatted with him as freely as if she had always known him. "I am afraid I ought to be getting dinner," she said at length; "what should you like to have me cook for you?" "I want you to have just what you like," replied the joiner. This, however, did not satisfy Wiseli, for she desired above all else to please him, so she asked question after question until she found out what she wanted to know. She knew how to make the soup he said he liked, and she realized now that she had learned many useful things from her aunt, even if they had been taught without kindness. Wiseli prepared the joiner's dinner on a tray and carried it to him. "I wish you would draw the little table over here and eat your dinner with me," said the joiner. "Mine will taste so much better if you will." Wiseli was again surprised, but she said, "That is just what mamma would have said." What a pleasant dinner that was! The joiner was so considerate of Wiseli's comfort that it made the humblest task a pleasure to her. "Now what are you going to do?" he asked, when they had finished dinner and Wiseli rose from the table. "I am going to wash the dishes," she replied. "I suppose such things have to be done," said the joiner, "but I think, since this is your first day with me, that you might stack them up and do them to-morrow; you know there are only a few." "Why, I should be so ashamed if Mrs. Ritter should happen to come in that I shouldn't know what to do," said Wiseli, and she turned such a serious face to him that he laughed. "All right," he said; "only remember that you are to do just as you like while you are with me." Wiseli had not thought that it could be so much fun to do up the dinner work. When it was finished, she said to herself, "Now this kitchen is nice enough for any one to inspect." She had been told that the alcove opening off from the living room was to be hers, so she hung her few garments in the closet opening from one corner of the room. When she returned to the joiner's room he said, "Good, I have been waiting for you a long time." "Haven't you a stocking that I could knit while I sit here?" she asked, as she took the chair beside the bed. "Of course not," answered the sick man; "you have already done too much, and I want you to rest now." "But I am not allowed to sit idle except on Sunday. Besides, I can knit and talk at the same time." "If you will be any more contented with a stocking, get one, by all means, but please remember that I don't want you to work unless you prefer to do so," said the joiner.