"Watch, indeed!" exclaimed her mother, as though the very word was an offence to her. "What do you know about buying a watch?—a bit of a girl in her first place. You need all the money you can earn to keep you in decent clothes, to say nothing of what you owe me for all the things I have had to buy to make you tidy, and give you a fair start in service." And Mrs. Brown almost burst into tears as her eyes fell again on the glittering silver watch her daughter was so proud to display.

Fanny was a little over sixteen, a tall, well-grown girl for her age, stout and rosy, and looking the picture of health, as she stood there telling her mother her trial month was over, that her mistress was very well satisfied with the way she had done her work, and that she was to have six pounds a year at first, a whole day's holiday once a month, and every Sunday evening to go to church.

"I am very glad to have that bit of news, Fanny," said her mother, in a more cheerful tone. "But still, I wish you had left the watch alone. I don't believe in such finery for a girl like you."

"Finery!" repeated Fanny. "Father has got a watch."

"Yes, but your father's is for use, not to dangle round his neck like that glittering thing. You've got a clock in the kitchen at your place, haven't you?" said her mother.

"To be sure we have," said Fanny, with a toss of her head. "But I'm not always in the kitchen," she added.

"Well, my girl, I dare say we shall get over it but I do feel disappointed, for I wanted you to let me have all you could spare of your wages this month for Eliza."

"For Eliza!" repeated Fanny, changing colour a little. "Is she ill again, mother?" she asked.

"No; she is better—very well for her. But Mrs. Parsons from the Vicarage came to see me yesterday, and asked if Eliza could go with the nurse and children to the seaside for a month. Our Vicar thought she might help to look after the children on the sands, and that the change would do her good too."

"Oh, mother, how kind of the Vicar and Mrs. Parsons! And what a chance for Eliza! Of course you'll let her go!"

"How can I now?" And Mrs. Brown put her apron to her eyes, for she could not keep her tears back any longer. "I spent every penny I could scrape together to send you out tidy, never thinking I should want to do the same thing for Eliza yet awhile, or that you would go and throw away your first wages on rubbish like that watch."

Fanny looked confused and defiant. Certainly, if she had known the money was likely to be wanted for such a purpose as helping her delicate sister to go to the seaside, she would not have bought the watch; but she did not like it that her mother seemed to think she had a right to claim her first wages, and she muttered something about this just as Eliza came in from school.

"Has mother told you, Fanny?" she exclaimed, after hugging and kissing her sister.

Fanny had pictured this meeting with Eliza again and again during the month she had been away, and she had thought it would be part of the day's pleasure and triumph to show her sister the grand watch she had bought. But now—well, how could she?

"Did you tell your teacher?" asked Mrs. Brown. The younger girl looked up quickly, for she noticed the change in her mother's tone.

"What is it? What is the matter, mother? Have they been to say that the Nurse thinks I am too little to look after the children?" she asked, with changing colour.

Her mother shook her head, and the tears filled her eyes, as she said—

"No, no, dear; it isn't that. But I don't know how to get you the tidy things the Vicar said you would want."

Eliza turned and looked at her sister. "Haven't you got your wages?" she whispered, for her mother had told her there would be no difficulty about the new cotton frocks she would have to buy for her, because Fanny would be able to let her have the money, and they could repay her later. But now, as she looked at her sister's angry, downcast face, she did not know what to think. "The lady didn't pay you, did she, Fan?" she said, with a tremor in her voice, fixing her eyes on her sister's face as she spoke.

"Don't look at me like that! I can't help it! I'm sorry. But I haven't got any money to buy you new frocks, and I don't see—"

She could not say any more, for she heard her father coming in at that moment, and she dashed out of the back door and went through a gap in the hedge, and walked to some fields close by, where she sat down and cried to herself for several minutes. She managed to persuade herself that her mother was very unkind and unreasonable to think she could have all her money to spend upon Eliza, and that she had no right to say what she did about the watch. "I wonder what she would think if she knew I had to pay two pounds for it. She thinks ten shillings a lot of money, and so I shall keep it to myself that I have to pay any more." And Fanny thought she had better go home again and make the best she could of things, or some of the children would be sent to look for her.

Just after she had started to run back, she heard her name called by a familiar voice, and the next minute she was joined by a girl about her own age, but dressed in a dirty-fine frock, and looking altogether so slatternly and untidy that even Fanny was struck with the contrast in their appearance.

"Are you out for your holiday, Fan?" she said, as she slipped her arm in Fanny's.

Fanny knew that neither mother nor father would be pleased to see her with Jessie Collins, and she tried to get away from her as they drew near their own house. But Jessie held her arm tightly.

"I haven't told you half the news yet, Fan!" she exclaimed. "I tell you it is as true as I am here that there'll be work soon for all us girls, and we need not go to service, and I for one am very glad of it."

"Oh, if you get a nice comfortable place, I don't see why—"

Jessie laughed mockingly. "I do though," she said. "And I told mother this morning she needn't bother herself to look for another place for me, for I shall go to work in the blacking factory as soon as ever it opens."

Fanny made a wry face. "I hate the smell of blacking," she said.

"So do I," answered Jessie; "but it isn't so bad when it gives you liberty to go where you like in the evening, and dress how you like, too."

Fanny glanced at her companion and smiled. But just then a voice was heard calling her in a loud tone, and she crept through the hedge again, and came face to face with her brother.

"You've been out with that Jessie Collins, instead of waiting indoors to see me and father," he said accusingly.

"I didn't go out on purpose to see Jessie," replied his sister, in an aggrieved tone. And she ran in to see her father.

"Well, my girl, what made you run off just as I was coming in?" he said.

"Oh, she caught sight of that Jess Collins," announced Jack, who had followed her into the kitchen.

Her father looked from one to the other as Fanny's face flushed angrily.

"Look here, Fanny," he said, "it don't matter just for this once, of course, but it would not be wise to make a friend of Jessie Collins. She is about in the streets too much of a night to please me, and I told her father the other day that no girl of mine should ever be about as Jessie is, and so, to please me, I hope you won't go to meet her again."

"I didn't go to meet her, father," said Fanny, darting an angry look at her brother.

"There, no teasing, Jack," said his father. "Fanny is a visitor to-day, and I hope her first holiday will be a happy one," he said, patting her head. "See what a nice pudding mother has made for dinner, just because her girl was coming home for her first holiday."

If Brown had wondered why Fanny had ran off as she did, he thought it best to say nothing about it just now, and he made room for her to sit beside him, and pushed his own plate aside to make room for her dinner, which had been kept hot in front of the fire by Eliza.

"Never mind about the wages," she whispered, as she placed it on the table before her sister.

"You must make haste, or we shall eat all the pudding," said her father, jokingly.

Fanny had put the watch out of sight, and she was glad of it, for now there would be no more disagreeable questions asked unless her mother should say something about it, which at present seemed very unlikely. And so the dinner passed off pleasantly, and no reference was made to either watch or wages during the rest of the meal.

"I shall see you again at tea-time, my girl; and if we aren't wanted to work late to-night, I will see you home, like I used to see mother when she was a girl in service," and Brown nodded to his wife as he took his cap from its nail at the back of the door and went off with Jack to work.

When the dinner-things were cleared away, Fanny agreed to go with her two younger sisters to the National School to see her former governess and tell her how she was getting on, for she had recommended Fanny for this place, and, of course, would be glad to hear she was giving satisfaction. The two younger girls were very proud to walk with their elder sister to school once more. Selina was eight and Minnie twelve, so that Fanny felt quite grown up beside these two, and took a hand of each as they went up the street together, and quite forgot the trouble of the morning for a little while. But before the school was reached, Selina said—

"Isn't it a pity poor 'Liza can't have new clothes to go to the seaside?"

"What do you know about it, Miss Inquisitive?" said Fanny, sharply.

"I heard mother and 'Liza talking about it when we came home from school. Don't you wish mother had money enough to buy some new frocks?"

"Why, of course I do, little stupid!" said Fanny, crossly, as though she thought Selina had spoken like this on purpose to vex and annoy her; and then that her mother must have told the children all about the watch.

"I dare say mother will manage somehow," said Minnie, after a pause.

But Selina shook her head. "Mother can't make new frocks out of nothing," she said.

But just then the school was reached, and other girls gathered round the sisters, and Fanny was soon telling her former schoolfellows what a nice comfortable place she had got, and how kind and considerate her mistress was to everybody. And then the school-bell suddenly stopped, and there was a general scamper among the girls to reach their classes in time to answer when their names were called, and Fanny was left standing near the door of the schoolroom until the governess had finished calling the names and was at liberty to speak to her.

Then she called Fanny to her table and shook hands with her, and said how glad she was to hear such a good account of her from her mistress.

Fanny opened her eyes in some surprise. "I did not know you knew Mrs. Lloyd," she said.

"She is a friend of a friend of mine," explained the governess, "and I met her at this friend's house a few days ago. When she spoke of you, she said what a nice, neat, tidy girl you were. You have your mother to thank for a good deal, Fanny," added the governess.

"Yes, ma'am," answered Fanny, and then she asked after several schoolfellows and teachers whom she did not see in their places.

She stayed until playtime, and then went out and had a chat with some other old friends until the children returned to school, and then she went home.

"Fanny, dear, I am so sorry, and so is father, I know; but Jack has just been to say they have got to work late to-night, and so father won't be able to walk home with you as he hoped he should." And Mrs. Brown kissed Fanny by way of consolation for this disappointment, and also in token that all the disagreeables of the morning were over and done with.

"Oh, mother, how tiresome everything is!" exclaimed Fanny. "I made sure father would walk home with me."

"Never mind, Fan, mother will go instead," said Eliza, who always thought a walk with her mother the best part of any holiday.

But Fanny sniffed at the proposal. She was afraid that if her mother went with her she might ask more questions about the watch; and if she thought she ought not to have given ten shillings for it, what would she say if she found out that the price she had agreed to pay was two pounds in monthly instalments of three shillings a month. The woman who had come to the kitchen entrance at her mistress's house had assured her that it was the cheapest watch that had ever been sold for that money; but she was afraid that her mother might not be of the same opinion, and so, for peace' sake, she resolved to say nothing about this to anybody, nor mention the watch again to any one at home.

She found there was a pile of her own old underclothes on the table when she went into the kitchen, and Eliza was contentedly patching and darning these under her mother's direction.

"There is a good bit of wear in some of the things," said Mrs. Brown, in answer to Fanny's look of surprise. "You grew so fast the last year, Fanny, that you got too big for them, and they were torn rather than worn out, and so I think they will do for Eliza for a little while."

"But you can't make frocks out of these things," said Fanny.

"No; but if we get these ready, mother says the frocks may come in good time; and so, as I am not going to school, I can mend these ready," said Eliza, with quite a happy look on her pale, delicate face.

Like her sister Minnie, she had the fullest confidence that her mother would manage "somehow," and that the neatly mended, outgrown clothes would go with her to the seaside after all. So she sat and sewed and darned, while Fanny told all about her visit to the school. She agreed to carry her father's tea to the factory that her sister might keep on with her work. Then they had their own tea, which Mrs. Brown contrived should be a happy, merry meal; for she did not want Fanny to feel that they were not all very glad to have her at home for her holiday, and she was very sorry that anything had occurred to spoil the day they had all looked forward to with so much anticipation.

Of course it was Fanny's own folly that had caused all the unpleasantness. Mrs. Brown did not hide this fact from herself, nor could she feel otherwise than disappointed that her Fanny, whom she was so proud of, had been both foolish and selfish in spending all her first wages before she reached home, to know whether any of the money was required for the others.

But there should be no more said about it, Mrs. Brown was determined; and so, when they set out on their walk this evening, she said, in a cheery tone—

"Now, you musn't worry yourself about Eliza, what is done can't be helped, and I think I shall manage to get her what she wants if father has to work later two or three times. I have got enough, I think, to make her two white aprons like yours, for Aunt Mary sent me a nice long length for you, when she heard that you had got a place. She sent me ten shillings, too, towards getting your new things, so that I cannot ask her to help me with Eliza's as well."

"And, then, I was always her favourite," put in Fanny, "so, of course, she would like to help me."

"Oh yes, of course," said her mother, with a smile.

"If aunt sent you ten shillings and all that stuff for aprons I can't owe you much, can I, mother?" said Fanny; for she was thinking just then of the large sum of money she still owed for that watch. And if she was in debt to her mother too, whenever would she be able to buy herself a new best dress?

Her mother was a little startled at the question.

"In debt?" she repeated. "I never thought of it in that way. We have always been ready to help each other, and I thought when you were able to earn money for yourself, you would like to help the rest of us."

"Oh yes," assented Fanny, "I should, of course, when I could afford it. But you said this morning I owed you money for my things; but if aunt sent that money and stuff for me, it can't be much, not worth talking about."

"No, not worth talking about," repeated Mrs. Brown, in a mechanical tone. But as she said the words a chill seemed to creep over her, as though a great gulf had all at once arisen between her and her dear child Fanny, separating them and putting a stranger in the place of the girl she had been so proud to call "my Fanny" only a few hours before.

There was silence between the two for a minute after this, and Fanny vaguely felt that she had hurt her mother, but still with the thought of all the money she owed for the watch, she wanted to be quite clear as to what her mother could claim from her, and so she said—

"Of course, I hope you will be able to send Eliza away all right, and she is welcome to the muslin aunt sent for me, and to all the clothes I left at home, but I don't think I shall be able to give you any money as well."

"No, Fanny, I shall never ask for it or expect it again."

Mrs. Brown said these last words with a tremor in her voice, and as soon as Fanny had reached the end of her walk, she kissed her and bade her good night, and turned to walk up the garden path without another word.

Halfway back Mrs. Brown met her husband, who had come straight from his work to walk home with her.

"Why, what is it, mother? Haven't you anything to tell me about our girl?"

For answer Mrs. Brown said, "I'm tired, Tom. This walk has been almost too much for me, I think. I can't talk about anything to-night."

"Come along, then; take my arm. Never mind the dirty jacket. I will help you home, and you shall go straight to bed, or else you will be having one of your bad headaches, and we can't afford that just now, can we?"

Mrs. Brown went to bed as soon as she reached home, and she had to spend the whole of the next day there; but no word passed her lips about Fanny and her watch, and, wisely or unwisely, she said no word to her husband that the girl had bought one.

[CHAPTER II]

ELIZA

"IF you please, ma'am, mother says if 'Liza Brown isn't going to be nursemaid at the Vicarage, couldn't you send our Polly? She's bigger than 'Liza," added the girl, looking up at her former teacher as if to challenge any contradiction of this assertion.

Miss Martin, the teacher of the National School, was silent with amazement as she listened to the proposal. But she had long wanted to have a word with her former scholar, Jessie Collins, and this was too good an opportunity to be lost, and so, instead of expressing the surprise she felt, she simply looked the girl over in her shabby fine frock, and said—

"Surely your mother must know that I do not choose the Vicarage servants, Jessie? And I have not heard that Eliza Brown was going for more than a month, to help with the children while they are away at the seaside."

Jessie nodded. "Yes, that's it," she said. "But 'Liza can't go; her mother can't afford to buy her the new frocks. But mother will get Polly a nice lot of new things!" and Jessie glanced complacently at her own fine frock as she spoke.

"I have not heard anything about this, Jessie!" said her teacher; "but I am sure of this, that the question of new frocks would be of far less importance to the Vicar and Mrs. Parsons, than the character of the girl they chose to be with the children," said Miss Martin, looking earnestly at Jessie as she spoke.

"Well, nobody can't say a word against our Polly!" said Jessie, in a defiant tone.

"Polly is a quiet, steady girl; and I wish you were like her," said her teacher. "Are you in service now, Jessie?" she suddenly asked.

"No, ma'am, I ain't; and I don't think I shall go again."

"Why not? The place I recommended you for was a nice comfortable one, I know."

"Well, I wasn't treated fairly, and I didn't stop," said Jessie, in a sullen tone.

"Not treated fairly?" repeated her governess.

"Well, no," asserted Jessie; "mother bought me a new frock when I had been there a month. I chose it myself, mother said I might; and the missis said it was not at all suitable for a servant, so I just give notice and left."

"But you have had another place since?" said the teacher, in a questioning tone.

"Yes, but it was just about the same; she said I thought more about finery than I did about my work; so I'm going to the new blacking factory as soon as it opens."

"Oh, Jessie, I am very sorry to hear this, because you are placing yourself in the way of temptations you may not be able to resist, and may be sorry for it all the rest of your life."

"I don't like service," muttered the girl.

"My girl, everybody, in every station of life, has to endure things they do not like, it is the way God teaches and trains us all, and it would be much better for you to be in a respectable, comfortable home, learning to be useful, than playing about the street as you have been lately."

"Who said I ran the streets?" demanded the girl.

"I have seen it for myself, and I feel very sorry that a bright, clever girl like you, who could be such a useful woman in the world by-and-by, should just throw away all her chances which she will never have again."

"What chances?" asked Jessie, in a more gentle tone.

"The chances to learn all sorts of useful things; how to cook in the most economical way. How to make a house clean and neat. A mistress is always ready to teach her young maid these things, and while she is learning them she is earning a character for herself too, that is of more value than anything else, if she only does her work faithfully and truly, as God's servant, as well as a household servant."

Jessie was evidently touched by the kindly tone in which these words were spoken.

"Thank you, ma'am. I didn't know you cared about me now," she said.

"But I do care for you, and want to see you grow up a happy useful woman, of whom I can be proud to say that she was one of my scholars when she was a girl."

Tears had filled Jessie's eyes while her governess had been speaking.

"If it wasn't so hard," she murmured, "I'd like to please you like that," she said.

"Nothing that is worth having is gained without hard work. Before I could be a teacher, I had to learn many hard lessons, not from books only; although I had to sit learning from books when I would gladly have gone out for a walk, or to see my friends; so that I know what hard work is better than you do."

"But you didn't have to go to service," muttered Jessie.

"No, God had fitted me to be a teacher, and opened the way for me to learn to do my work properly. He has placed you where you can learn to be useful by helping others to make their home nice and neat and comfortable. Your strong, young arms can move a brush and broom much better than some who are older and weaker, while they can teach you many things you need to learn, if you are to be a capable, useful woman by-and-by. Try to think of going to service in this way. We all have to help each other in some way, and God wants many of the young girls to use their strength to help those who are weaker and less able to do housework. In doing this, you are helping mother and father too, as well as yourself. Now, think over what I have said, and I hope you will soon get another place. But if you should not do that just now, remember that your old governess is always your friend, and ready to help you whenever she can. Now, tell mother I hope she won't want to take Polly away from school yet. She is a year younger than Eliza Brown, although she is a bigger girl."

"All right, teacher," said Jessie, with a nod, "Polly shall stop at school just as long as you want her to," she added, as though she had the ruling of all such matters in her home.

Miss Martin looked after her, and sighed as she went out of the school, for she feared that the influence at home was not likely to help the girl to a right decision in the ordering of her life. And then her thoughts turned to her other scholar, and she decided to send for Mrs. Brown, and find out what truth there was in Jessie's report.

She knew the Browns had had a good deal of trouble. The father had been ill, and out of work for some time, and she knew that Eliza was delicate, and often under the doctor's care; but surely a managing woman like Mrs. Brown, with the help she would get now from Fanny's wages, would be able to get the girl decent clothes, so that she might have the benefit of the Vicar's kind offer; and she called Selina from her class, and told her to run home and ask her mother to come to the school at four o'clock, as she wanted to speak to her as soon as the girls were dismissed.

"I wonder what it can be!" said Eliza, anxiously, when she heard the message. "I hope it isn't to say I am not wanted, now we have got such a lot of things ready."

"You haven't got any new frocks," put in the chatterbox Selina.

"Never mind, they are coming, mother says," answered Eliza.

"Oh yes, they are coming!" said Mrs. Brown.

"The stuff will be here, I dare say, by the time I have finished all I have got to do. Now, run back and tell your governess I will come at four o'clock; and don't you chatter among the girls about things you hear at home," added Mrs. Brown, as Selina went out.

Mrs. Brown reached the school just as the girls came trooping into the playground, and she went on as soon as the crowd had passed, and Miss Martin placed a chair for her near her own, for she thought she looked very ill, and she said so.

"No, ma'am, I am not ill, but I think I got a bit overtired the day Fanny came home for her holiday;" and she sighed as though the memory of that day had a pain in it that could not be forgotten.

"It is about Eliza that I want to see you. I heard this afternoon that you would not be able to let her go to the seaside after all," said Miss Martin; and she looked as though she thought Mrs. Brown ought to do anything rather than let her child lose such a chance as the Vicar had offered.

Mrs. Brown coloured. "I wonder who could have said such a thing!" she exclaimed. "We are working away—Eliza and I—to get her things ready, and I hope we shall get the new frocks as well by the time they are wanted," she added.

"Has there been any difficulty in this matter?" said the governess. "I thought Fanny would be able to help you a little, for she told me what nice new clothes you were making for her to take with her to her first place; and, of course, she has her first month's wages now, and very little use for the money."

The governess echoed exactly what her own thoughts had been, until she saw Fanny and that watch. But however much Mrs. Brown might have been pained by her daughter's behaviour, she did not wish the governess to know anything about it, and so she made some confused allusion to her husband's long illness, which left Miss Martin in doubt as to whether Fanny had helped her mother or not; but at the same time the general character of the family was so good, that she said—

"Now, Mrs. Brown, you must not let Eliza miss this chance of going to the sea, and so I will ask you to accept the loan of five shillings for a few weeks. You can repay it a shilling a week, as you can spare the money; but I want you to get all Eliza will need to make her tidy and comfortable. There is a warm woollen dress of my own that does not fit me since I had it washed, but would, I think, make a nice one for the seaside, if the weather should happen to be too cold for cotton frocks. If you will come home with me, you might take it back with you."

"Oh, thank you, ma'am! Indeed, I shall be very glad to accept your kind offer," said Mrs. Brown; and as she spoke, the tears filled her eyes, and she looked up so gratefully at Miss Martin that the lady felt quite glad she had remembered the old dress that had been a source of vexation to her lately.

To Mrs. Brown it was a splendid gift. Just what Eliza needed, for her own winter frock she had outgrown, and it was very shabby and threadbare, while this was soft and warm, and just the colour suitable for a seaside frock, and she carried home her parcel, feeling so thankfully delighted, that she might have been walking on air rather than common earth.

"More work, Eliza," she said, holding up her parcel as soon as she went in.

"What is that?" asked little Selina, curiously. Mrs. Brown had not noticed that the child was in the room.

"Now, Selina, was it you that told some of the girls at school that I could not get new frocks for Eliza? I was very vexed to hear about this to-day; and if ever you talk about home affairs at school again, I have asked your teacher to punish you. Now you can go out to play," she added. And the little girl, with drooping head, opened the back door and went into the garden.

"Miss Martin has been very kind indeed, but she does not wish it to be known, and so the girls must not go to school and chatter about it." And then she opened the parcel, and showed Eliza the soft, warm dress that would make her such a beautiful frock for the seaside.

"Oh, mother, it is too good for every day!" said the girl.

"Well now, I had a talk about that with Miss Martin, and she told me to tell you to let Nurse decide when you ought to wear a warm frock. You are not very strong, and the frock is to be worn when the days are chilly; so remember to ask Nurse to tell you when you had better wear it. And the next thing for us to do is to make it."

"Oh, mother, what a good thing it was we began to mend up Fanny's old things!" said Eliza, as she turned over her governess's discarded dress with a view to decide how much alteration would be required to make it fit her. And when tea was over the dress was tried on, and then the unpicking began, and everybody was busy doing something to make ready for Eliza's visit to the seaside.

Her father was putting new thick soles on her boots, and Jack new hinges to a small wooden box that would just hold her clothes, when the postman's sharp rat-tat at the door startled them, and he brought a parcel from Aunt Mary—"material to make Eliza a new best dress," she said, in the letter that came with it. "You will be sure to get her suitable cotton frocks," she wrote; "but the girl will want a new best dress, I am sure, and as I sent Fanny one last year, it is Eliza's turn now."

"Well, I am afraid I shall not be able to make it for you before you go away," said her mother, with a sigh of relief, as she thought how all their fears had been dispelled and Eliza provided for. The cotton frocks would be bought the next day; but mother and daughter both decided that the best dress could not be made until the others were finished and everything else got ready. "I may not be able to make it before you go," said her mother; "but you could wear one of your new cotton frocks for the first Sunday, and I will let you have the best one for the Sunday after, for you will want to go to church."

"Yes; I dare say I shall have to take that dear little Master Eustace," said Eliza. "He looks such a darling, sitting in the Vicarage pew, that I shall like to have him sitting next to me at church."

"All right, my girl; there is nothing like being in love with your work, whatever it is," said her father. "But you need not expect the little chap is always going to behave like an angel; there will be squalls sometimes, I dare say, and you will have to be patient and gentle when you would like to scold and be angry. But you must just think of mother, and what a deal she has to put up with from one and the other of us here, and what a different home it would be if she got angry and lost her temper every time we vex her."

Eliza nodded. "I will try to think of it, daddy, and think of how you are all helping me to go away, and—"

"I don't know so much about that," interrupted her brother. "We shall miss you more than we do Fan, I know, because you are always ready to help anybody when you can; and so I'm not so glad you are going away, I can tell you. Only I want you to have everything nice and comfortable when you do go," added Jack.

They laughed at Jack; but there was no doubt he expressed the general feeling of the family in what he said, for Fanny had always considered herself first in anything she was asked to do for anybody else. If it suited her mood just at the time, she would do what was asked of her; but it she had to sacrifice any ease or pleasure, then she would refuse, though it might be plainly her duty to do what was required.

Mrs. Brown had noticed this trait in Fanny's character before she left home, but hoped that the discipline of being in service would help her to overcome it; and it was this hope, so cruelly disappointed, that had made Fanny's behaviour so deeply painful to her mother the day she came home for her holiday, and she feared that nothing less than a very severe lesson would be sufficient to teach Fanny what a mistake she was making in choosing to gratify herself rather than seeking to be helpful to others.

She made no remark about this when Jack was speaking, but she could not help thinking of it, and could not contradict the children when, one after the other, they each in their own way said that Fanny always took care of herself first.

"Wait a bit, wait a bit, Jack," said his father, at last. "I like fair play, and Fan isn't here to defend herself, and she hasn't been tried yet, and so we can't say what she may do." Brown was very fond of his elder daughter, and could not bear to hear her blamed. "What do you say, mother?" he suddenly asked, turning to his wife.

"I am too busy to talk to-night," she said. "I want to get on with Eliza's frock, for we cannot tell when she may be wanted to pack up and be off," and so Mrs. Brown evaded saying one word about Fanny either of blame or defence; but Jack held to his own opinion, and said it was a good thing for the Vicarage children that it was Eliza instead of Fanny who would look after them under Nurse's direction during their stay at the seaside.

"They'll have a jolly time with Eliza, if the Nurse will only give her a chance," said Jack. And as no one attempted to contradict this assertion, the discussion dropped, and was apparently forgotten by all but the girl's mother and father.

[CHAPTER III]

THAT WATCH

"GOOD morning, miss. I've come from Judds' the watchmakers." And the speaker, a shabbily dressed young man, drew a book and pencil from his pocket as he spoke.

"Do you want some more money for my watch?" asked Fanny, with a gasp, and drawing the door close behind her. "The missis is in the kitchen," she whispered.

"All right. We don't want to see the missis about this business, do we? Three shillings, if you please." And when Fanny took it out of her pocket, he wrote the amount on a card and handed it to her as he took the money. "This is your first payment. I shall call every month, unless you send the money to our place before I come."

"It isn't the first payment," said Fanny, quickly. "I've paid ten shillings to the lady."

"It's the first you've paid me. I haven't anything to do with money I don't receive. Good morning." And Fanny hastily put her card in her pocket as a woman selling cottons appeared.

"Oh yes, I want a reel of cotton," said Fanny loud enough for her mistress to hear.

"Who is at the door, Fanny?" asked the lady at the same moment.

"I'm buying some cotton and things of a woman," answered Fanny, thinking how lucky it was the woman happened to come at this moment. When she returned to the kitchen, her mistress said—

"It would be better for you to buy your buttons and cottons at the shop, Fanny. The things women sell about the street are never very good—hardly worth using, in fact."

Fanny made no reply, but having put the saucepan on for the pudding, went upstairs to sweep one of the bedrooms, and the moment she got there she took the card out of her pocket to examine it. At the bottom a slip of pink paper was attached, and on it was printed, "No money is to be paid to the person who delivers the watch." Fanny read this over two or three times.

"What can it mean?" she exclaimed, half aloud. "I paid her ten shillings more than a month ago!" Then she looked more closely at the card to see if this ten shillings had been put down to her account. But there was no writing except that done by the young man. He had put down the three shillings she had paid him, but it was clearly stated on the card that she was to pay two pounds for the watch, and in the second column of the card stating the balance still owing, "thirty-seven shillings" had been set down.

Fanny did not master these facts all at once. Instead of sweeping the room, she stood near the dressing-table conning her card, and was still standing there when the door opened and her mistress came in. She put the card hastily into her pocket just as the lady said—

"Fanny, what are you doing? You came here twenty minutes ago to sweep the room, and you have not begun it yet."

Fanny picked up her broom and bustled about now, and the lady left her sweeping vigorously. She had not left the room many minutes when the broom went down, and Fanny once more had the card out to examine, wondering and puzzling why the ten shillings she had paid had not been acknowledged. Little as she knew of business, she remembered that, whenever she paid the rent at home, the landlord always set down in the book the sum that was paid, and why should not her ten shillings be set down on the card in the same way?

It was a puzzle she could not solve, and she took up the broom again. But her mind was so full of anxiety concerning the ten shillings that she failed to see where flue and dust had collected in the corners, and under the furniture, so shortly after the broom and brushes were carried downstairs Fanny was told to take them back again and sweep the room properly.

This made her angry. "I have swept it once," she muttered. But she knew her mistress would be obeyed, and so she sullenly went back to do her work over again, her mind still full of the card and the ten shillings.

This time she was determined to have everything out of its place, and swung her broom and brushes about with such vigour that a few minutes afterwards a crash resounded through the house. A water-jug she had been told to be particularly careful of was broken in a dozen pieces. The lady came running upstairs, her worst fears confirmed when she saw the pieces of broken crockery lying scattered on the floor.

"Fanny, I asked you, when you came, to be very careful of that jug, as I set great store by it because of the friend who made me a present of the toilet-set many years ago. The jug was the only thing left of the original gift, and now that is broken!"

The lady spoke almost mournfully as she looked at her shattered treasure. Then she glanced at Fanny's angry, defiant face. But there was no sign of sorrow there, as she muttered—

"I didn't do it on purpose."

"Well, you must save some of the pieces, and go and match it after dinner. You must pay half the cost, too, for if you had taken more care it would not have happened."

Fanny burst into tears, not for the loss of the jug so much as that she would have to part with some of her money to pay for it, and she resolved to be more careful with the crockery in future. Already she had broken several cups and plates, but her mistress had simply warned her against being careless. Now she wished her mistress had made her pay for the plates, they would have cost far less than the jug, and she would have handled it more carefully. Some such thought as this had been in the lady's mind, when she said Fanny must pay half the cost of this breakage, and she decided that she must be a little more strict with her young servant in future. Hitherto she had been very lenient towards her in many things, but Fanny's behaviour this morning had convinced her that she must look after her more closely, or the work of the house would be slighted and neglected.

It was an unhappy day both for mistress and maid. The mistress, of course, knew nothing of the cause that made Fanny so cross and negligent with her work. And Fanny resolved that no one should know anything about her watch, and how she was paying for it. Her mother had told her she knew nothing about buying a watch, and other people would laugh, and call her a fool, if they heard she had been cheated of ten shillings; for that was what Fanny began to fear might be the meaning of the amount not being set down on the card.

It made her very angry to think anybody could cheat her, but she resolved not to let any one else know it. She was determined no one should be able to say, 'What a fool Fanny Brown was over that watch!' The money she had to pay for the water-jug reduced still further the sum she had left of her month's wages, and she also made the painful discovery that her boots were wearing out.

Now, Fanny had not thought of wanting new boots. What she did want was a new best dress; for when her mother provided her with new clothes this had not been included, because Mrs. Brown could not afford it, for one thing, and also she thought the old one would last a month or two longer, and then Fanny would have saved enough money from her wages to buy it for herself.

Fanny thought of the new frock, and groaned as she saw the condition of her boots, and then she reflected that she was going home the next day for her second monthly holiday, and also to see Eliza, who was to start with the Vicarage party for the seaside the following day.

Fanny did not look very happy when she got home the next morning, and was scarcely in the mood to rejoice with her sister when she told her that she had got two new cotton frocks, a nice woollen one, and also the material for a new best dress, which her aunt had sent.

"I'm sure you don't want that, then!" snapped Fanny. "If you have got a dress good enough for Governess to wear you can keep that for best, and let me have the new one."

"But aunt sent you a new frock last year, and she said it was my turn now," protested Eliza, who felt very disappointed that her sister showed so little interest in her affairs.

She had not packed her box, because she felt sure Fanny would like to see everything that was going in it. And now Fanny scarcely noticed anything, but just turned up her nose when she saw how carefully her own old clothes had been patched and mended and made to fit her younger sister.

The old wooden box that had been repainted and repaired by Jack was a perfect treasure-trove to Eliza and her mother, and both were disappointed when Fanny showed so little interest in their work.

When her father came home, Fanny greeted him eagerly with the words—

"I see you can mend boots better than ever, daddy. Eliza's do look nice!"

"Ay, it was about all I could do for the lass," said Mr. Brown.

"Could you mend a pair for me?" said Fanny, coaxingly.

"Lor' bless the girl! I thought you said I cobbled them when you went to your fine new place," he added, with a laugh, as he kissed Fanny a second time.

"But you haven't cobbled Eliza's," said Fanny; and she seated herself beside her father at the dinner-table, and persuaded him to undertake the repairing of her boots before the meal came to an end. Having thus succeeded with her father Fanny turned her attention to her mother and Eliza. "I don't see that you will want a best frock at the seaside," she said to her sister, as they wandered out into the garden and then to the fields beyond.

"Aunt said the stuff was to make me one," said Eliza, wondering whether she ought to let her sister have it.

She never remembered having a new dress. Hers had always served her sister first, for when Fanny had outgrown them, they had been done up and called new for her. She therefore wondered now whether she would have to give up her aunt's present that Fanny might have the first turn with the new frock. Fanny tried hard to persuade Eliza that this was the best way of disposing of their aunt's gift, assuring her that she would take great care of the new dress, and only wear it for best, and at last wrung a promise from Eliza that, if their mother was agreeable, this plan should be adopted.

While they were in the fields, Jessie Collins joined them. She was still waiting for the blacking factory to open, although she was far less keen about going there than she had been when she saw Fanny the last time she was at home.

"How are you getting on, Fan?" she asked. "Do you like your place and your mistress as much as ever?"

"No, I don't. She's a nasty cross old thing now, and if she don't get better soon, I shall leave and go somewhere else."

"Oh, Fanny!" exclaimed her sister.

"There, you need not be a telltale, and let mother know what I said," exclaimed Fanny. "You're all right. You are going to the seaside just to play on the sands, so my troubles need not worry you."

"Troubles!" repeated Jessie, with a loud laugh. "It's come to trouble, has it? Well, I was thinking of going to service again myself; but if you find trouble in it, I am afraid I should too, and so I had better stick to my blacking factory, although they are a long time before they begin business."

"I shall see how you like the blacking, and if you get on, I may try it," said Fanny.

Jessie looked serious. "Your mother won't like that," she said, "nor will Governess either. I had a talk with her the other day, and she almost persuaded me to go to service again," concluded Jessie.

Fanny was anxious not to displease her mother just now, so she would not stay long talking to Jessie, for fear she should be seen, and so went indoors to try and have a talk about the new dress.

"Mother, me and Eliza have agreed to have the new frock between us," she said, going to have another look at the box which her mother was packing.

"What do you mean?" asked Mrs. Brown, rather sharply.

"Well, mother, we always have had our new frocks between us," said Fanny.

"You mean you have always had the new clothes, and Eliza has had to wear them when you had done with them. This will be altered in the future, I hope."

"I don't see why we should not go on in the old way," muttered Fanny.

"What do you mean? What do you want?" asked her mother.

"We both want it," replied Fanny.

"You said it would be better to have the new frock made to fit you," interrupted Eliza, who greatly hoped her mother would not consent to the plan, although she had been coaxed into promising not to oppose it.

"It was all Fanny's idea, of course," said Mrs. Brown, looking keenly at Eliza.

"Yes, mother. She says she wants a best dress more than I do."

"Very well, if she wants a new frock she is earning money for herself now, and can buy one," replied her mother.

"No, I can't!" snapped Fanny; and she went out and banged the door after her. Eliza would have followed her sister, to try and soothe her ruffled feelings, but her mother called her back.

"I am afraid we have all been spoiling Fanny and making her selfish," said Mrs. Brown, gravely. "She has had the new frocks because she was a big girl, and when she had outgrown them they could be done up for you, and so she has come to expect that she is always to have the best of everything, whoever may have to go without. She must learn to consider other people as well as herself, and so it will be positively unkind to encourage her in her selfishness when there is no longer any need to do it. Besides, Aunt Mary said you were to have the new frock this time, for she knows we have been obliged to let Fanny have the first turn always."

"I should like a new frock, mother, of course," said Eliza; "but if it will make Fanny unhappy, I don't mind if it is made to fit her just for this once."

But her mother shook her head. "I love you both," she said, "and it would not be really kind to let Fanny have her own way in this matter. I saw, the last holiday she had, that we had all been making a mistake about this, and that we should have to turn over a new leaf, and help Fanny to do the same; and a beginning must be made now, however cross she may be about it."

"I am afraid she will think me very unkind, as I am going to the seaside too," said Eliza, with a little tremor in her voice.

"Well, dear, I am sorry it has happened so; but, you know, true love thinks of the good of the person loved, and not whether it will please them. Now, to let Fanny have this new frock will do her harm, and not good. She will be angry, perhaps, that she cannot have her own way, as usual, and this will be like a dose of bitter medicine to her; but the medicine will do her good, I hope, and she will be all the happier for it by-and-by."

Fanny stayed out with some friends until nearly tea-time, and when she came in she was looking as though she had been deeply injured.

She looked from her mother to her sister to see whether either of them were prepared to coax and comfort her, but both were busy getting tea ready—Eliza's last tea at home before she went away—for she was going to sleep at the Vicarage that night, to be ready to start on her journey the next day.

"We are to have jam for tea, and mother has made a cake for us as well," said Eliza, as Fanny took her place at the table.

"You might put father's chair in its place for him," said Mrs. Brown, looking at Fanny.

This was not the sort of reception the girl expected, and the gloom deepened on her face; but, after a pause, she said, sullenly—

"What have you settled about that frock?"

"There was nothing to settle!" answered her mother.

"Yes, there was; for Eliza said we had better have it as we always had, and I thought I would buy the body lining before I went home."

"Do you mean you would like to buy it for Eliza?" asked her mother.

"No, of course not, if the frock isn't to be made to fit me!" said Fanny, ready to cry with vexation.

"I told you before that your aunt had settled that point. The frock was sent for Eliza this time, and not for you, and Eliza shall have it!" Mrs. Brown spoke very decidedly, and her husband coming in at the moment looked from one to the other, wondering what had happened, and then Fanny burst into a storm of sobs and tears.

"It is a shame! it is a shame!"

"What is the matter? what is it all about, my girl?" said her father, taking his seat beside her and laying his hand on her head.

"It's all Aunt Mary's fault!" exclaimed Fanny, through her tears.

"What has Aunt Mary done?" asked her father.

"Well, Fanny seems to think that she is to have every new frock, and she does not like it because this last one was sent for Eliza and not for her," answered Mrs. Brown.

It was some time before peace was restored; but as soon as tea was over Eliza had to go to the Vicarage, and later on, when Fanny was getting ready to go back, her mother said—

"Now, Fanny, as you walk home, tell your father all about that watch you bought. I have not said a word to him because I want you to do it!"

Fanny frowned.

[CHAPTER IV]

JESSIE COLLINS

MRS. BROWN watched rather anxiously for her husband's return, hoping that Fanny would tell him all about the foolish purchase she had made, and show her father the watch, if she had it with her. "Ten shillings is a lot of money for a girl to waste," she said, half aloud, as she went to the door to look down the street, for the house seemed very lonely without Eliza. She had not missed Fanny so much, but a dreary emptiness seemed to pervade the whole house because Eliza was not there, and she was glad to stand at the door and say "Good night" to the few neighbours who passed.

At length one of them stopped at the gate and said—

"Isn't it a shocking thing about Mrs. Collins?"

"Why, what has happened?" asked Mrs. Brown.

"Haven't you heard? She was taken ill this evening, and the doctor says she won't live long." At this moment a girl was seen running towards them, and when she reached the gate she suddenly stopped. She was out of breath with her run, but she did not wait to recover it.

"Can you lend us a sheet?" she panted.

"Why, it's Jessie Collins!" said Mrs. Brown. "How is your mother now?"

"Doctor says she is a mite better, but I must get clean sheets for her."

She did not look at Mrs. Brown as she said this, for she knew she was no favourite of hers; and besides, the Browns had always been people who kept themselves to themselves, making few friends among the neighbours. But Mrs. Satchell, who stood near the gate, was an old friend of her mother's, and might be expected to help them.

But Mrs. Satchell made no reply to the appeal for sheets; and Mrs. Brown, after waiting for her to answer, said—

"I think I can lend you the sheets, Jessie. But they are old ones that I have patched."

"Oh, thank you! They will do, if they are clean; and I know they will be if they are yours, Mrs. Brown," added the girl, gratefully.

Mrs. Brown went upstairs for the sheets, and when she brought them down she said—

"Now, can I help you put them on the bed, or have you got anybody else to help you?"

"Thank you, Mrs. Brown. If you could spare a little time I should be glad, for you know how to do everything, mother says."

"Very well. You run back to your mother, and I will soon follow." And Mrs. Brown said "Good night" to her other neighbour, and was turning indoors when Mrs. Satchell stopped her.

"Look here, Mrs. Brown," she said, "you don't know what you're doing, lending sheets and helping them. I know Jessie and her mother too. And—"

"Yes; they are your friends," said Mrs. Brown, rather shortly; and once more saying "Good night," she went and told Minnie, who had just gone to bed, that she must lie awake until her father came home, and then tell him that she had gone to help Jessie Collins make her mother comfortable. "Father has got the key, and can let himself in, and so you need not get up," added her mother, as she took a clean apron out of the drawer, and also a clean pillow-case, which she thought Jessie might have forgotten to ask for.

She had never been inside Jessie's home before, and the sight of the dirty, close-smelling room she passed through on her way upstairs made her feel sick.

"It isn't cold to-night," she said, as she went up the stairs; "and if you were to set this downstairs window open it would make the bedroom fresher."

"All right," answered Jessie; and she dashed down again and sent the window up with a bang.

The bedroom was worse than Mrs. Brown had imagined. The sick woman had lain down in her clothes on the unmade bed, and now lay moaning, half unconscious of her surroundings.

"Doctor said she was to be quiet, so I wouldn't let any of 'em come up to her," said Jessie, by way of explaining matters.

Mrs. Brown scarcely knew where to begin the task of making things comfortable, but at last, with Jessie's help, she began to arrange the unoccupied side of the bed, rolling up the sheets, ready to pass under the invalid when they had made her ready to move.

Brought out of peril

BROUGHT OUT OF PERIL

BY

EMMA LESLIE

AUTHOR OF

"Faithful, but not Famous," "The Martyr's Victory,"

"Maggie's Message," etc.

THIRD IMPRESSION

LONDON

THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY

4 BOUVERIE STREET AND 65 ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD, E.C.

CONTENTS