Yet Mrs. Sherwood was a perfectly capable and practical
housekeeper, and when her health would allow it she did all the
work of the little family herself. Just now she was having what
she smilingly called "one of her lazy spells," and old Mrs. Joyce
came in to do the washing and cleaning each week.
It was one of Mrs. Sherwood's many virtues that she bore with a
smile recurrent bodily ills that had made her a semi-invalid
since Nan was a very little girl. But in seeking medical aid for
these ills, much of the earnings of the head of the household had
been spent.
The teakettle was singing when Nan entered the "dwelling in
amity", and her mother's low rocker was drawn close to the side-
table on which the lamp stood beside the basket of mending.
Although Mrs. Sherwood could not at present do her own laundry-
work, she insisted upon darning and patching and mending as only
she could darn and patch and mend.
Mr. Sherwood insisted that a sock always felt more comfortable on
his foot after "Momsey" had darned it than when it was new. And
surely she was a very excellent needlewoman.
This evening, however, her work had fallen into her lap with an
idle needle sticking in it. She had been resting her head upon
her hand and her elbow on the table when Nan came in.
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