"I don't see what's to become of us now. Mother, you said I was to go to school." "Yes,"--and Mrs. Carpenter sighed here. "I have not had time yet to find the right school for you." "When will you find time? Mother, I think it was a great deal better at Medwayville." Mrs. Carpenter sighed again, her patient sigh, which aggravated Rotha. "I don't like New York!" the latter went on, emphasizing every word. "There is not one single thing here I do like." "I am sorry, my child. It is not our choice that has brought us here." "Couldn't our choice take us away again, mother?" "I am afraid not." Rotha looked on at the busy needle for a few minutes, and then burst out again. "I think things are queer! That you should be working so, and other people have nothing to do." "Hush, Rotha. Nobody in this world has nothing to do." "Nothing they need do, then. You are better than they are." "You speak foolishly. God gives everybody something to do, and his hands full; and the work that God gives we need to do, Rotha. He has given me this; and as long as he gives me his love with it, I think it is good. He has given you your work too; and complaining is not a part of it. I hope to send you to school, as soon as ever I can." Before Rotha had got up her ammunition for another attack, there was a tap at the door, and Mrs. Marble came in. She always seemed to bring life with her. "What do you get for that?" she asked, after she had chatted awhile, watching her lodger. Mrs. Carpenter was making buttonholes. "A shilling a dozen." Mrs. Marble inspected the work. "And how many can you make in that style in a day? I should like to know." "I cannot do this all day," said Mrs. Carpenter. "I get blind, and I get nervous. I can make about two dozen and a half in five hours." "Twenty five cents' worth: I declare!" said the little woman. "I wonder if such folks will get to heaven?" "What folks, Mrs. Marble?" enquired Rotha, to whom this saying sounded doubtful. "The folks that want to get so much for so little. They wouldn't be satisfied with any heaven where they couldn't get a hundred per cent." "The Lord gives more than that," said Mrs. Carpenter quietly. "A hundredfold in this present world; and in the world to come, eternal life." "I never could get right hold of that doctrine," said Mrs. Marble. "Folks talk about it,--but I never could find out it was much more than talk." "Try it," said Mrs. Carpenter. "Then you'll know." "Maybe I shall, if you stay with me long enough. I wisht I was rich, and I'd do better for you than those buttonholes. I think I can do better anyhow," said the little woman, brimming over with good will. "Ha' you got no friends at all here?" Mrs. Carpenter hesitated; and then said "no." "What schools are there in this neighbourhood?" she asked then immediately. "Schools? There's the public school, not far off." "The public school? That is where everybody goes?"