"We've got an apple-pudding
to-day."
"You haven't forgotten what I like, Mary."
"There's no knowing how long you will be able to afford puddings,"
said Aunt Rachel. "To my mind it's extravagant to have meat and
pudding both, when a month hence you may be in the poor-house."
"Then," said Jack, "I wouldn't eat any."
"Oh, if you grudge me the little I eat," said his aunt, in severe
sorrow, "I will go without."
"Tut, Rachel, nobody grudges you anything here," said her brother,
"and as to the poor-house, I've got some good news to tell you that
will put that thought out of your heads."
"What is it?" asked Mrs. Crump, looking up brightly.
"I have found employment."
"Not at your trade?"
"No, but at something else, which will pay equally well, till trade
revives."
Here he told the story of the chance by which he was enabled to
serve Mr. Merriam, and of the engagement to which it had led.
"You are, indeed, fortunate," said Mrs. Crump. "Two dollars a day,
and we've got nearly the whole of the money that came with this dear
child. How rich we shall be!"
"Well, Rachel, where are your congratulations?" asked the cooper of
his sister, who, in subdued sorrow, was eating her second slice of
pudding.
"I don't see anything so very fortunate in being engaged as a
porter," said Rachel, lugubriously.
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