"I know it," replied Jessie, "and I've joined his company; so if you meet little Impulse the wizard, please tell him not to come here again unless he wishes to be beaten with a big club called good resolution."
"Bravely spoken, Lady Jessie! May you never desert the Corporal's colors! Above all, may you always obtain grace from above whereby to conquer yourself, which is the grandest deed you can possibly perform."
Jessie sat down to her work-basket, and took up one of the pieces of cloth for her uncle's slippers. But as it was now late in the afternoon of a dull November day, she could not see to embroider very well. So she thought she would go out again and buy the brown worsted which was needed in working out the figure on the slippers. Going to the window first, she noticed that the sky looked cold and bleak. The wind, too, was whistling mournfully among the branches of the trees, and round the corners of the house. It was evidently going to be a cold night. Turning from the window again, she said to her brother Hugh, who was sitting very cosily in a large arm-chair before the glowing fire in the grate:
"Please, Hugh, will you run down to the village with me? I want to get some worsted at Mrs. Horton's."
"Why didn't you get it this afternoon?" asked Hugh in his usual grumpy way when asked to do any thing.
"Didn't think of it, eh? Well, I don't think I shall be your lackey this cold afternoon. I'd rather sit here and keep my toes warm."
"Do go, dear Hugh, please do!" said Jessie in her mellowest tones. "I shall want the worsted to-morrow morning."
"Oh, go to Greenwich! You are always wanting something. Girls want a mighty sight of waiting on. I won't go."
Jessie turned away from her ungracious brother wishing, as she had so often done, that he "was more like Guy." Had it been a little earlier in the afternoon, she would have gone alone; but as it was nearly dark she preferred company.
"Oh dear!" sighed she, "what shall I do? I wish Guy was in."
"Perhaps you would accept an old man's company," said her uncle, rising and buttoning up his coat.
"I should be very, very glad to have it, but I don't want to trouble you, Uncle," she replied.
"It's no trouble to go out with my little puss. Besides, by going, I can give this drone-like brother of yours a practical lesson in that love and politeness which he so much despises. I shall certainly be happier going with you, than he will be in the indulgence of his selfishness before the fire."