with admiring it that they did not hear the house door open and close.
A step in the hall, however, reminded the little girl of her music
lesson.

"Gracious, that must be Miss Remick!" she said, in confusion.

She quietly opened the door of the oratory, intending to peep into the
parlor to see if the teacher was there. To her surprise she
encountered her mother, who had just come up the stairs. But Mrs.
Clayton was much more astonished by the sight which greeted, her eyes
when she glanced into the oratory.

"O Abby," she exclaimed, in distress and annoyance, "how could you be
so disobedient! O Larry, why did you help to do what you must have
known I would not like?"

Larry grew very red in the face, looked down, and fumbled with one of
the buttons of his jacket,

"But, mother," began Abby, glibly, "it was for the Blessed Virgin, you
know. I was sure I could put down the carpet all right, and I thought
you would be glad to be saved the trouble."

"Put it down all right!" rejoined her mother. "Why, you have ruined
the carpet, Abby!"

Both children looked incredulous and astonished.

"Don't you see that you have cut it up so shockingly that it is
entirely spoiled? What is left would have to be so pieced that I can