"Oh, I didn't mean that! But if you saw how thin and, careworn and poor she is----"
"I know it--I've seen her often enough. Meg, wasn't it Jem as said that you did with your might 'whatsoever your hand found to do'?"
"It's the same thing with you, I'm thinking."
Meg went back to her tea-party, and by-and-by the bread was done, and came out of the oven looking a picture.
But she need not have spoken, for Meg was tapping it with her knuckles, and when she heard it sound clear and bright on every side, she knew it was baked through.
"There, Mrs. Blunt, one of those is for you; see I will stand it on its top on this shelf to let the steam off, and when you go you shall take it with you. Whenever you like, I'll come down and watch you make one or two batches; that is, if mother does not want me."
So the tea-party ended. Mrs. Blunt had not had such a quiet meal for years. Her face looked brighter and happier as she prepared to go back again. Mrs. Seymour had already returned to her ironing, and Meg was putting the loaf on a plate.
"Would you mind saying that text over again?" asked Mrs. Blunt wistfully.
"She's teached me one," said Pattie. "I 'tan say it--'Jesus,'--that's what she teached me."
"So I did," said Meg, kissing her, "and mother's text means just the same, only longer, because she's big. 'Cast thy burden on the _Lord_, and He shall sustain thee.'"
That afternoon when she went down with softened heart to her crowded and somewhat dirty rooms, she looked round upon them with new eyes--eyes that had been lightened by a ray from above. She scarcely knew it, and yet, instead of gloomy half-patient, half-hopeless despondency, she began to think even her poor little things might be able to be made better.
The rest of her children were all at school, but they would soon be home now. They must not find home more desolate than usual because mother had had a rare treat.
She put the new loaf carefully away, it must not be touched till to-morrow, and then she set on her kettle for tea and swept up the room. How different it looked even with that little bit of care! Next, deciding that she should just have time to clean the hearth, she set about it with all speed, and was just putting away her pail when there came a rush in the passage, and four or five children burst into the room.