The Portion of Labor

ded them jealously. "Where did you get all these things?" her aunt Eva had asked her, amazedly, when she first caug

, though she crushed them against her aunt's bosom as she sat in her lap. Ellen's grandmother and aunt had glanced at these treasures with momentary astonishment, and so had her mother, but curiosity was

yes of love sharpened with inquiry. "Ain't you hungry?" she said. Ellen shook her head. She was sitting at the table in the dining-room, and her father, mother,

" Ellen's father i

ick, do you?" rep

hook he

inned around her gaunt old face, which had in it a strange softness and sweetnes

again, mother," said her so

oked it for her, so nice, too," said Fanny, in a tone of con

, do you, Ellen?" as

r head. "No, m

sick, and she ain't hungr

he stout woman from the next house, whose breadth of body seemed to symbolize a corresponding spirit

Aunty Wetherhed's nice

of mysterious purpose, opened a door, ran down cellar, and return

your breakfast

t speak; she made no sign or motion. She

id Andrew. "Have you had yo

you have had your

poke with more authorit

ve had your breakfast, and

looked at one another. "Tell Aunty Wetherhed

Eva went into the sitting-room, and fetched them out-the bunch of pinks, the cup and

her little arms, when I first cau

, Ellen?" asked Fanny.

ling battery. "Where have you been, Ellen, all the time you have been gone?" aske

oft one, with his old facetious caress. "Tell father where you've been," he whispered

e got them?" whispered

ne; that's a b

t gave her last Christmas; that one cost a dollar and ninety-eight cents, and

s and saucers to Crosby's for twenty-fi

t have come fro

they

much." Then the first woman inclined her lips closely to the other woman's ear and

other's side," whispered the first

rply, "you didn't take those things in any wa

" cried

ole," said Mrs. Zelotes. Her face was no longer str

gain. "Father knows she didn't steal

ous rush out of the room and the house. She

rhed gone?" said on

ought of

ft her bread

thought of

ld-rimmed spectacles. The old woman was deaf, and her voice was shrill and high-pitched to reach her own consciousness. "What did such a good little girl as you be run away from father and mother fo

d-you said-you-" she stammered out, but then her father and mother were both down upon their knees before her in her chair embracing her, and Eva, too, seized her little hands.

Eva, too,"

ather and mother; you're all they have got. You don't know what father and mother have been through, thinking yo

n, Ellen," Fanny Brewster said, with a no

won't,"

and not let you hear such talk any more," said Fanny, kissin

try, too, El

whole yard of silk of the most brilliant blue before Ellen's dazzled eyes. "There!" said she, triumphantly, "if you will tell Aun

e looked at the blue silk, and she l

autiful dress it will

goes with the dolly's l

l father, and he'll buy you a whole

d find something to make your

tiful little bonnet, if y

hole pound of ca

va cried out-"a gold ring wit

e with mother on the car

you some oranges,

of Puritans upon her father's side. At all events she was silent, and opposed successfully her one little new will to the onslaught of all those older and more experienced ones before her, though nobody knew at what cost of agony to herself. She had always been a singularly docile and obedient child; this was the first persistent disobedience of her whole life, and it

child!" he cried. "Ellen, Ellen, look at Father

an

beautiful cologne on her head, and her mother was trying to make her drink water, and her grandmother had a g

questioned no more abou

rying to drive a child, when it comes of our family. She's got some notion in her head, and you've

ooseness of principle as to property rights was not as st

d see the counterpart of Ellen's, which was Sèvres, and worth more than the whole counterful, had she only known it, and she hurried past

s, with results varying from realistic horrors to Alice in Wonderland. Ellen was kissed and cuddled by some women and young girls, but not many were allowed to see her. The doctor had been called in a

be silent, let her alone. She is as delicate as that cup," said the doctor, lo