"You don't mean that you live here all alone?" asked Nell. "Oh, no; there is Hans and baby and me, and there is old Mrs. Price in the other part." "But your father and mother?" "Mother died a year ago. Oh, she was one such good mother, but baby came in her place. Baby looks like mother, and now I have to be her little mother, you see," and she set the little dumpling out upon her knee, with such pride and tenderness. "And your father?" The little Dutch girl dropped her head and answered very low, "Father has been gone a long time. They say he is shut up somewhere. He don't come home any more." "Oh, how very dreadful! I don't see where you get money to buy things with." "Hans is fifteen and works in a shop. He gets some money, and he will get a good deal, by-and-by. The rest _I_ get from the flowers. You see I raise them myself, mostly." "But do you get enough for clothes and playthings, and do you always have enough to eat?" persisted Nell. "_I_ don't have any clothes, I make over mother's. We have Kitty for playthings. Enough to eat? _Baby_ always has enough, don't she, lovie?" cuddling her up close. A new world was opening up to Nell. "Excuse me, but don't you have any pleasure trips, or birthday parties, or Christmas?" "No; I don't just know what those things are, but we have nice beef and apples for dinner on Christmas." "And are you always happy as you seem--really happy?" The "little mother" opened her eyes wide in wonder. "Why, _of course_. What else should we be? Mother always told us it was wicked to be cross, and that we must not fret much, even over her going away to heaven." Nell did some hard thinking on her way home, and being a sensible little girl, she made up her mind that one way to be happy is to be _busy_, and not only busy, but useful, and she set about the new way in earnest. She learned that it is possible to be unselfish and happy _any where_; she in her wealthy home, and the "little mother" in her one room, with her baby and her flowers. LITTLE SCATTER. MRS. JEANE A. WARD. She was her mother's darling, and a very good little girl in most things. With her yellow hair, big blue eyes and rosy cheeks; in the pretty blue dress and red sash; nice little slippers on her plump feet, she made the whole house lively and bright, and sometimes she made plenty of work for every one in it, too, for she was a terrible Nelly to scatter playthings. The dolly would be on the chair, her torn picture-books over the floor, her ball kicking about everywhere, and her blocks any where. What could mother do with such a girl? When she would talk to her, Nelly would promise not to do so any more, and would pick up the dolly and the pictures, and the ball and the blocks, and her other toys, and take them to her own corner play-house and fix them all in order, and be real good for a little while.