"You could sweep the room every day, you could make the beds, with a little help in turning them; you could set the table, toast the bread, and wash the dishes. Perhaps you would not do these things so well at first; but you would keep improving, and get to be a nice little housekeeper."
"Oh, I wish I could do something for Uncle True!" said Gerty; "but how could I ever begin?"
"In the first place, you must have things cleaned up for you. If I thought Mr. Flint would like it, I'd get Kate M'Carty to come in some day and help us; and I think we could greatly improve his home."
"Oh, I know he'd like it," said Gerty; "'twould be grand! May I help?"
"Yes, you may do what you can; but Kate'll be the best hand; she's strong, and knows how to do cleaning very well."
"Kate?--She's Mrs. M'Carty's daughter in the next house. Mr. Flint does them many a good turn--saws wood, and so on. They do most of his washing; but they can't half pay him all the kindness he's done that family. Kate's a clever girl; she'll be glad to come and work for him any day. I'll ask her."
"Uncle True's going to be gone all day to-morrow," said Gerty; "he's going to get in Mr. Eustace's coal. Wouldn't it be a good time?"
"Very," said Mrs. Sullivan. "I'll try and get Kate to come to-morrow."
Kate came. The room was thoroughly cleaned and put in order. Gerty's new clothes were delivered to her own keeping; she was neatly dressed in one suit, the other placed in a little chest found in the pantry, and which accommodated her small wardrobe very well.
It was the result of Mrs. Sullivan's, Kate's, and Gerty's combined labour which astonished True on his return from his work; and the pleasure he manifested made the day a memorable one in Gerty's life, one to be marked in her memory as long as she lived, as being the first in which she had known _that_ happiness--perhaps the highest earth, affords--of feeling that she had been instrumental in giving joy to another. Gerty had entered heart and soul into the work, when she had been allowed. She could say with truth, "_We_ did it--Mrs. Sullivan, Kate, and _I_." None but a loving heart like Mrs. Sullivan's would have sympathized in the feeling which made Gerty so eager to help. But _she_ did, and allotted to her many little services, which the child felt herself more blessed in being permitted to perform than she would have done at almost any gift bestowed upon her. She led True about to show him how cleverly Mrs. Sullivan had made the most of the room and the furniture; how, by moving the bed into a recess, she had reserved the whole square-area, and made a parlour of it. It was some time before he could be made to believe that half of his property had not been spirited away, so incomprehensible was it to him that so much additional space and comfort could be acquired by a little system. But his astonishment and Gerty's delight reached their climax when she took him into the lumber-closet, now transformed into a snug and comfortable bed-room.