said Mr. Omer; ‘didn’t know her own mind quite — a little spoiled — and couldn’t, at first, exactly bind herself down. No more than that was ever said against her, Minnie?’

‘No, father,’ said Mrs. Joram. ‘That’s the worst, I believe.’

‘So when she got a situation,’ said Mr. Omer, ‘to keep a fractious old lady company, they didn’t very well agree, and she didn’t stop.

At last she came here, apprenticed for three years. Nearly two of ‘em are over, and she has been as good a girl as ever was. Worth any six! Minnie, is she worth any six, now?’

‘Yes, father,’ replied Minnie. ‘Never say I detracted from her!’