The sisters looked at each other in silence for a moment, while Polly burst at once into tears; then Susan’s head went down on the table, and Sally, with clasped hands and eyes uplifted, cried fervently, “Bless the Lord!” “Don’t cry,” said Metzerott hastily; “it’ll be cheaper to me in the end, now that trade’s so brisk, than knocking off to go to market and cook every five minutes or so. I’ve been knowing for quite a while that I should have to hire somebody; but I didn’t want no strange women around, and I’m ashamed to say I never thought of you.” “And you know,” said Louis, who had scrambled down from the table, and was hugging Polly Price, “you know we’ve got to ’vide some day, and I’m glad of it because it’s so awful jolly.” “The boy is a good Communist,” said Metzerott, laughing; “and now, if you ladies feel able to wash the dishes, I’ll go back to my work.” “There’s pretty near enough soup for to-morrow,” said Sally Price, peeping into the big iron pot. “My laws! wasteful ain’t the name for a man!” CHAPTER VIII. MULTIPLICATION. “There’s just this about it,” said Sally Price, “Mr. Metzerott ain’t goin’ to be no loser by _us_, and that settles it.” “He’ll get paid for his kindness in heaven, anyhow,” returned Susan tearfully. “Heaven!” the scorn in Miss Price’s voice was for Susan, not the country she had named. “He’s goin’ to get paid right here on earth, and you can just take hold and help me, Susan Price, instead of settin’ there a-snivellin’. Some folks thinks a deal too much of heaven, anyway.” “Why, Aunt Sally!” “It’s as true as the Gospel, child. I don’t say but it’s a nice place, heaven, after you get there; and when you’re real tired and hungry and sick, and not a minute to take a long breath, it’s a solid satisfaction to think as there’s a time comin’ when you won’t need to eat nor breathe nor work no more; but I don’t believe in settin’ on your haunches, when a man’s feedin’ you out of his own pocket, and talk about his havin’ his reward in heaven. If folks that talk so much about heaven hereafter would quit right off, and set to work to make things a little more like heaven _here_, ’twould be lots better. We, includin’ Polly, wouldn’t ‘a’ been so near the other place, Susan Price, if things was run on that plan here below.” “That’s so,” answered Susan meekly.