"No," said Ella, shaking her head in a sorrowful manner. "Bridget is the chamber-girl. I wish I could work; but I only play with my dolls all day, except when I go to ride with mamma." The boy looked somewhat surprised at this entire exemption from care; but he said, soothingly, "I dare say you will work when you are older. Mother says the command in the Bible is for all: 'Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work.'" Ella stood looking gravely upon the lad as he sat steadily at his employment, and then said, "Will you please tell me about your sister? What was her name?" "Isabella. Oh, she was a dear little girl! She had eyes just like the blue sky, and such a pretty mouth, always full of, smiles. Now she's gone home to God." "Oh dear!" exclaimed Ella, "that's too bad. How could you let her go away?" For a moment the boy ceased his employment, raised his tear-dimmed eyes to the clear sky, then brushed away the glistening drops, and resumed his work. Presently, in a subdued voice, he replied, "God gave her to us, and he had a right to take her again, you know. Mother cried dreadfully; but she said, 'God knows what is best.' I miss her every night," said the boy, choking back his tears, "I loved her so dearly." "Shall you go away when you've finished the peas?" asked Ella, anxious to turn from so painful a subject. "Oh no! I shall do the beans next. See, I'm almost done." "Why! won't you be tired?" "No indeed. I have a great mind to tell you my secret." The child filled the air with her musical laugh. "I do like to hear secrets," she said. "Well, I'm trying to work real hard, because I want to buy mother a straw bonnet, and some pretty ribbon to put on it. It will be so nice to wear to church, you know." At this moment a voice in the hall called, "Ella! Ella!" and the child tripped away. It seemed to Harrison as if the sun had gone behind a cloud when her laughing face disappeared from the railing; but he entered with renewed zeal into his work, saying to himself, "I wish mother could see her; she's a dear little thing!" CHAPTER II THE OYSTER-SALOON. "If any will not work, neither shall he eat." IT was nearly two o'clock before Harrison went home. First he had to prepare the string-beans; then one of the boarders called him to do an errand, for which he paid him a dime, after which the cook gave him a number of chores to do; so that altogether he had made quite a profitable morning of it. Beside this, he had eaten a hearty dinner, as indeed he did almost every day, before he left the hotel, and, with the consent of the proprietor, carried home a basket of broken pieces for his mother.