"So I used, but not for a long time now; and you know there are a great many things that have to be right, or your bread won't be right." "Well," said Jem, "let's get 'em all right, and then we shan't have no mishaps." Meg laughed merrily. "Jem, I must have some German yeast, and some nice good flour." "I'll buy those for you as I pass along to my work, and tell them to send 'em in." "But they'll have to come early," said Meg, "or it will not be a bit of use." Jem promised to see to that; and then Meg propounded the question which had been burning on her lips all yesterday, only she could not get courage to bring it out. "Jem," she began. "Well, little woman?" "Jem--should you very much mind if I were to earn something?" Jem looked astonished, and then a cloud came over the brightness of his face. Did his little woman already begin to miss some of the things she had been accustomed to at the Hall? "Why, dear?" he asked soberly. "Because--at least--Jem--your mother said--if I helped her she should pay me!" "And you did not like that?" asked Jem, looking relieved, but puzzled. "I suppose I did not. I think I should like to help her for nothing--out of love to you, Jem, and by-and-by out of love to her." "Yes, dear, so should I; but I see what mother feels. If she has more work than she can do alone, she would have to pay some one else, and would a deal rather the money went into your pocket. She would not be right to earn money at your expense." "Not if we gave my time willingly?" "No; but, Meg, you needn't do it unless you like it, my dear." "I thought you would be sure to tell me to help your mother all I can," said Meg, almost ready to cry. "An' so I should, sweetheart, while we had breath in our bodies, if she were ill or needed it. But it's different as it is. Jenny don't serve her well, that she don't." "Who is 'Jenny'?" asked Meg. "Jenny lives on our first floor. She has an old blind father, but she's out a deal. I fancy they have some sort of little income, for she don't work steady enough to keep him, and pay rent for those two rooms." "And does she iron for mother?" "Yes; and wash too sometimes. But mother has a knack or two with the washing, and likes to do most of that herself; she says folks don't get the things clean." "Then you would like me to earn something if I could, Jem?" she asked. "Well, dear," he answered very kindly, "if you was to ask me what I'd like, I'd say as I should _like_ you never to have a need to work all your life! But, Meg, I've looked at things a long time, and I've laid awake at night too thinkin' of them, and I've come to learn this. That our God don't mean us to be idle--none of us--and that it's _whatsoever_ our hands find to do, that we are to do with our might." Meg's eyes lost their troubled look, and brightened up into their own serene sweetness under his earnest gaze.