Little Alices Palace | Page 8

Alice said "she could go with Lolly as well as not that day, and they would make a pretty place of the shabby cottage; for it was just in the best spot--so wild and shady and green."
It was rather a sorrowful task at the beginning, and almost any other little girl than Alice would have been quite discouraged.
There was a great deal of rubbish in the sitting-room, and the floor and windows looked as if they had never known anything of soap and water. Maddie sat upon the top of a half-barrel, swinging her brown, soiled feet, and playing with a black puppy, that was snapping at her toes; while the table was strewn with crumbs and dirty dishes from the morning's meal, and chips and sticks and bits of rags were upon the floor.
She looked as if she had just got out of bed. Her face was dull, and her hair showed no touch of brush or comb, and her nails were long and dirty; but she jumped from her perch with some signs of shame as she saw Alice, so neat and tidy, at the door; and she began to scramble about as if she wished to make things a little better.
"May I help you to-day, Maddie?" asked Alice. "I haven't any work at home, and I like to get things tidy. We'll make such a room of this before night!" And, without another word, she began in earnest to bring order out of strange confusion.
Lolly was a capital helper, because her heart was in the matter, and she really wanted a pleasant, cheerful home; but Maddie was content to look on, and scarcely moved a finger to help.
They packed away the wood and chips in the closet under the lowest shelf, and washed the dishes and set them up edgewise in their proper places; and they mopped the floor, and scrubbed the windows and table, and brought boughs of evergreen to hang upon the nails around the walls and make it cheerful and pretty.
Alice thought of this. She said, "Rich folks hang paintings on their walls--and these are God's pictures, the work of his almighty fingers, and so beautiful! Why not put them where we can always look at them, and in them see his love and kindness?"
Lolly thought her the most wonderful little girl in all the world, and clapped her hands for joy as she looked upon the altered room.
Then they went outside, and swept the sticks and chips from the lawn; and Maddie managed to hunt up a hammer and some old rusty nails, and to help Alice to fasten the loose boards upon the door, which improved it more than anything else could do.
It was so low from the roof to the ground that by stepping on a chair they could easily reach; and they trained a running rose-bush, that had been long neglected, and hung, trailing, over the grass, so that it nearly covered the whole side of the cottage, and would soon be like a bright green mantle over the dark walls.
CHAPTER VII.
Just as they had finished their labours, and Alice had prevailed upon Maddie to put herself in a little better order, and the three young friends had seated themselves upon the step to get something from Alice's Bible--some words of love and blessing, as Alice said, from their heavenly Father--there came a lady up the road towards them. She was walking very slowly along, with her parasol shielding her face, so that it was quite concealed from the children; but Alice knew her dress, and ran quickly to meet her, crying joyously, "It is Miss Mason, dear Lolly!"
Maddie ran into the cottage and hid behind the door, like a foolish little girl; but Lolly sat still, very glad that the good teacher was coming to speak to her, yet trembling with a sort of nervous fear; because she was a shy little girl, and so seldom saw strangers.
She wondered that Alice dared go so fearlessly up and walk along, with her hand in Miss Mason's hand, and her face upturned towards the lady's, while she talked as freely as if it had been herself or Maddie listening. But when Miss Mason stood by the step and stooped down to kiss her sun- burned cheek, and said sweetly, "So this is your little friend Lolly, is it, Alice?" she did not wonder any longer; for her heart leaped to meet the gentle lady, and she could not take her eyes from such a kind and loving face.
"Where's Maddie?" asked Miss Mason, with a smile.
She could see her peeping through the crack of the door; and, understanding the case, she said carelessly,--
"I suppose she will join us by-and-by. We will sit here and read in Alice's book until she comes, and