you are overworked, and you are certainly looking a little thin,
Esther. Does not Carrie help you enough? And what is this I have just
heard about the night school?"

Our last grievance, which I had hitherto kept from Allan; but of
course mother had told him. It was so nice to be walking there by his
side, with the crisp white snow beneath our feet, and the dark sky
over our heads; no more fractiousness now, when I could pour out all
my worries to Allan.

Such a long story I told him; but the gist of it was this; Carrie
had been very imprudent; she would not let well alone, or be content
with a sufficient round of duties. She worked hard with her pupils
all day, and besides that she had a district and Sunday school; and
now Mrs. Smedley had persuaded her to devote two evenings of her
scanty leisure to the night school.

"I think it is very hard and unjust to us," I continued rather
excitedly. "We have so little of Carrie--only just the odds and ends
of time she can spare us. Mrs. Smedley has no right to dictate to us
all, and to work Carrie in the way she does. She has got an influence
over her, and she uses it for her own purposes, and Carrie is weak to
yield so entirely to her judgment; she coaxes her and flatters her,
and talks about her high standard and unselfish zeal for the work;
but I can't understand it, and I don't think it right for Carrie to
be Mrs. Smedley's parochial drudge."

"I will talk to Carrie," returned Allan, grimly; and he would not
say another word on the subject. But I forgot all my grievances
during the happy evening that followed.