"Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home," carolled Winnie, as she descended the stairs the next morning, feeling happy and contented, and as if the world were a pleasant place in which to live and love and to succeed in being good. She felt at peace with everybody, and had such a sense of security that she imagined her giants all conquered, and saw in rosy hues a future of beautiful and pleasant right-doing.

What was her surprise when she entered the dining-room, expecting to find the usual tempting breakfast on the table, to see not the slightest signs of it, and to find the room unoccupied except by little Ralph, who was sitting in front of the empty grate in his night-clothes; and a very cross little boy Winnie soon found him to be, for he set up a howl the moment he saw her.

"'Innie, I 'ants to be d'essed, and it's ugly izout any fire, and I 'ants my b'eakast." "Whatever is the matter?" said Winnie. But she received no answer except the whining refrain, "I 'ants my b'eakast," until she began to feel so irritated that she would have liked to shake the child.

This, however, she did not do, simply because she did not dare. But instead of attempting to soothe him, she went into the kitchen to find out from Norah the reason for this unusual state of affairs. Instead of Norah, she found her mother heating water and making mustard plasters, with an anxious look on her face.

"What is the matter, mamma?" asked Winnie; "and where are papa and Jack?"

"They had important business at the store and couldn't wait, but will take breakfast downtown. Norah was taken very sick in the night, but she said nothing about it, and came down as usual this morning to get breakfast, and I found her in a dead faint on the kitchen floor. Your father and I got her upstairs between us, and Jack went for the doctor. He says it is nothing serious, but that Norah will have to keep still for two or three days. Help me carry these things to Norah's room, and then you will have to come downstairs and get some breakfast for us."

Winnie took the pail of water which her mother handed to her, and started upstairs, feeling a strange sense of resentment against Norah, as if she were to blame for this unpleasant condition of affairs.

When they reached Norah's room, her mother said, "Put down the pail, Winnie, and make haste downstairs and see if you can't get things into some kind of order; it's getting very late."

Winnie put the water down so hurriedly that it splashed over the floor. Then she went out, but instead of hurrying, went down clinging to the balusters as if she could not and would not make any exertion.

When she opened the dining-room door Ralph said: "I sink Norah's mean to det sick; she dust did it a-purpose, so Ralph touldn't have any b'eakast."

"Why, Ralph," said Winnie, "you ought to be ashamed of yourself! Of course it's no fun for Norah to be sick." But as she spoke to Ralph, her conscience reproached her, for she knew in her heart that she had had the same feeling, if not the same thought. This startled her, as if she had suddenly had a mirror held up before her mind, and she spoke to the little boy more pleasantly, telling him to come into the kitchen with her and watch her make the coffee and cook some ham and eggs for breakfast.

But although aware that her conscience was speaking to her, Winnie had not in the least succeeded in overcoming her irritable feelings. She had made plans for such a pleasant day! She had intended to practice faithfully, and get through all her little duties early in the afternoon, so that she could take Ralph through market—something that she particularly liked to do; it was always so exciting to her to see the people jostling each other, to hear them haggling over the price of something, to see the strange types and characters, and to imagine the different motives which brought these different people together. Besides, she had been saving her money to surprise her mother with a pot of English violets from the flower market, which would be sure to be particularly lovely this afternoon, for the sun shone out brightly, giving promise of an unusually warm day for March.

"How could people do their duty, if they never knew what it was going to be?" she mused, as she measured out the coffee and put it into the filter. But as she went to turn the water over it, she remembered that her mother had emptied the hot water from the kettle into the pail.

"I should think mamma might have taken the water out of the tank for Norah!" she said, half aloud, although she knew very well that the water in the tank was scarcely warm, as she proceeded to fill the kettle.

She poked the fire viciously, feeling as if here she could give her impatience some vent.

The ham, fortunately, Norah had sliced the evening before, otherwise in her present state of irritation Winnie would certainly have cut her fingers.

Now, when Winnie chose, she could be a very nice little housekeeper; but this morning, as may well be imagined, everything went wrong, as she said, never thinking that perhaps her own impatience might be at fault. She burnt the ham, the eggs did not break open nicely, she cut her finger in slicing the bread, and altogether it took her so long to get breakfast that poor little Ralph, still running about in his night-clothes, was, as he expressed it, "starved 'mos' to death."

Mrs. Burton came down before Winnie had finished setting the table, and a glance at the little girl's flushed face was sufficient to tell the observant mother the true state of affairs. As usual in such cases, however, she said nothing, but called Ralph and took him upstairs to be dressed, telling Winnie that she would be down in ten minutes for breakfast.

When they came down, Mrs. Burton said:

"This morning we will not say our verses till after breakfast, as I am sure we are all of us too hungry to receive any benefit from them now;" and she proceeded to pour the coffee. Then Winnie saw that she had forgotten the cream and jumped up to get it.

"Your coffee is very nice, Winnie," said her mother.

"Oh, mamma, I didn't think anything would be nice! I had such a time! The fire wouldn't burn, and I burnt my fingers and afterward cut them, and everything was horrid generally."

"I had a defful time gene'lly, too," said Ralph. "I was so hung'y I toudn't wait, and 'Innie 'ouldn't div me a tracker, and said I'se a bodder. Is I a bodder, mamma?"

"Not when you're a good boy, my pet. Sister doesn't always think so, either; but you see, this morning she had so much to do."

"Did Norah det sick so 'Innie have to 'ork so hard? Poor 'Innie!" And the little fellow stroked Winnie's hand, while she scarcely knew whether to laugh or cry.

Altogether it was quite an unusual breakfast. Ralph ate three eggs, and more bread and butter than he had ever been known to eat before; and Winnie felt her own impatience dying away to some extent, as her hunger diminished, although she had not realized before that she was hungry.

After breakfast Mrs. Burton gave her text, and then called upon Winnie for hers. Up to that moment Winnie's text had entirely left her mind, and she recited it with a feeling of shame as she remembered the contrast between her morning conduct and the somewhat puffed-up feeling with which she had selected it: "He that ruleth his own spirit is greater than he that taketh a city."

"Perhaps only the One above knows how hard it is for people to govern their own spirits. The temptation to yield to self is so strong that it sometimes seems as if there is nothing that will conquer it," commented Mrs. Burton.

"But mamma, everybody says, 'Do the duty that lies nearest thee.' How are we to do this, when we never know what is going to happen from one day to another? This morning I thought I was going to get my music lesson, and now how can I do that?"

"That is where we all make mistakes, Winnifred. We lay our plans, and are annoyed and vexed when something occurs to change them. We are like soldiers placed on the field of battle. Some of us would like an easy place; some would rather stay behind and guard the rear; others, in spite of danger, wish to press forward where 'glory waits them.' But we cannot choose either our own places or the attending circumstances. All we can do is to fall to 'with might and main.' God will take care of the ordinary duties, but there are some things which brook no delay. Do we not know how the Savior turned away from the chosen way to heal the sick or comfort the afflicted? But I think that my present duty is to cut my sermon short, for both you and I will have a great deal to do to-day. I will attend to things upstairs, and will be down to do the baking by the time you are through the work here."

So saying, Mrs. Burton rose from the table and left the room. Winnie still felt a sense of disappointment, but the little sermon, arising, as it did, from the text she herself had selected, had been good for her, and she went to work cheerfully and systematically, and the difficulties which an hour ago had seemed so great, all disappeared. Ralph, too—who was so unlike most children of his age as not to be fond of doing anything that appeared in the least like work—seemed animated by the spirit of the occasion, and trotted back and forth between the kitchen and dining-room carrying a plate or a cup and saucer, and feeling that he was helping greatly.

As for Winnie, she had none of the feeling of some girls who are ashamed to be seen doing housework, for her mother had taught her, both by word and example, the folly and sinfulness of such a notion, and that it is the worker who degrades the work instead of the opposite; and as a very little girl, Winnie had learned Herbert's fine lines:

Now that she was working cheerfully, she even found a pleasure in dish-washing, as who should not, given plenty of hot water, clean towels, a pleasant kitchen with the sun shining in, and a little cherub of a brother chattering on with his cunning tongue, which finds so much difficulty in pronouncing the consonants?

So, when Mrs. Burton returned to the kitchen, everything was in fine order, and a bright fire had prepared the oven to do its share in the Saturday baking.

When noon came, Winnie really felt that she had had a pleasant morning, although it had been spent in beating eggs and grating lemons; besides, she had for once had her mother all to herself, and she sat down to the lunch she had prepared feeling quite happy.

She did not get an opportunity to leave the house all that day, except to do two or three errands in the neighborhood. She took Norah's toast and tea up to her, and spent the greater part of the afternoon in her room, trying to make amends for the morning's impatience by bathing the sick girl's head, changing her pillows, and moistening her parched lips.