142 TROTTYS WEDDING TOUR.

know. Your father can’t possibly afford to keep but one girl.
It comes very hard upon me, with my health. I have always
looked forward to the time when my daughter would take the
care off from me, pleas —”’

“ How much?” interrupted Beeb.

“_antly and cheerfully as a daughter should,” finished
Mrs. Burden, pulling the baby out of a hole which he had
kicked in the clothes-bag.

“* How much would it cost to keep a nursery-girl?”’ per-
sisted Beeb.

“From two to two and a half or more.”

“‘ Well, Meg Bolles or Sue Crowe, for instance, you could
get for two dollars?” -

“ Sue ’s sick, and Meg’s half grown, — yes, I suppose so.”

“ Would a two-dollar girl be worth as much as I am?
Would you get as much out of her? That’s what I want to.
know.”

.“ Why, yes, —I suppose I should, just about; perhaps a
little more; I should n’t hesitate to call on her for fear of
finding her in a fit of crying because she had been asked to
keep the baby a little while for me when Id been awake with
him till morning.”

Beeb received this thrust with bright cheeks but firm eyes.
She loved her mother, and her mother loved her; but they
had always disagreed about the housework, always; always
would, she hotly thought. When it came to the baby she
was apt to be impertinent. It seemed a great pity. It