Page:Live and Let Live.djvu/50

 done, can't I just go and see how they all are, and Jemmie." "Jemmie! who is he?"

"Jemmie! — Jemmie is the youngest."

"Not to-day, child — we had best begin as we are going on. Mr. Broadson and I always go to church all day — that we consider duty. Go to your work, child," continued Mrs. Broadson, seeing Lucy stand as if the question were not settled, "next Sunday will soon be here."

"Soon it may be to you, Mrs. Broadson — but it won't be soon to Jemmie, lying all the time in his basket-cradle, with nothing to think of but when I am coming. I promised him, Mrs. Broadson, and I must go—"

"You can't go, and there's an end on't" The thought of Jemmie nerved Lucy's resolution, and she answered modestly but firmly, "I must go, if I never return."

"I suppose you know the consequences of going and not returning, child. I never pay any wages to anybody that leaves me within the month."

"What shall I do? what ought I to do?" thought Lucy; "mother must have the money to pay her rent — I can live without seeing them — but Jemmie! but mother." "Oh, Mrs. Broadson," she burst forth, "let me go — please — Jemmie will be looking at the door, and listening till I come."

"He must take it out in listening, child — I must begin as I mean to go on — I always do — so just go to your work, and think no more about it."

How easy to give the command! how impossible to obey it! Lucy did go to her work, but her thoughts went home. Bitterly did she regret