"Rosa," called once again Mrs. Gray's shrill voice, as the child was
making her way across the dark hall, "come back here!"

"Yes'm, Mis' Gray, here I am."

"You're so awful careless, you see to it that you don't lose that money
I give you. If you do, you'll be sorry. You won't git the pay fer the
work; I wouldn't trust you with that, nohow. Now hurry up and don't
waste another minute! Wait! can't you give me a chance to tell you what
I want? You're so provokin'. Be sure to tell your ma where you're goin',
and that it'll take you about an hour and a half. I don't want her
a-gettin' scared and a-hollerin' 'round and a-sendin' some one after
you, like she did that day you didn't git home till dark. She acted
ridiculous, as if she thought you never would come back. I couldn't fer
the life of me see what made her do so; it was real silly, and I told
her so at the time. I did think, though, that you'd ought to be licked
fer not hurryin' up more, but she jest kissed you and cried all the more
when I said so. Go and tell her now, and be sure you don't drop that
package in the dirt."

This time Rosa started on a run, lest she might be called back once
more. She feared the tyrant, but vainly endeavored to love her for
grandpa's sake. He so often told her that "Sary was a good woman, yes, a
very good woman."

"Mother dear," she said, upon entering their one poverty-stricken, but
scrupulously neat, little room, "I'm going to deliver a package over on
Lake Avenue for Mis' Gray, and will not be back for about an hour and a
half, she told me to tell you; and she gave me ten cents, too. Ain't