"What was done, Clarissa?" her mother asked.

"I can hardly tell, mamma. A sort of a.s.sociation formed, for doing parish work."

"I do not think much of a.s.sociations," Mrs. Candy said. "People can work just as well in private, if they would only be content. Did _you_ join this a.s.sociation?"

"What is _parish work_, Clarissa?" Matilda asked.

"Why, work in the parish, of course," Mrs. Englefield answered.

"I don't know what the parish is, mamma?"

"Don't you? Well,--all the people that Mr. Richmond has the care of, I suppose; isn't it, sister?"

"But who has he the care of?" Matilda persisted, looking up at her mother earnestly.

"Well, child," said Mrs. Englefield, half laughing, "in a sort, he has the care of all the people he preaches to."

"Does he?" said Matilda. But at that the laugh became general.

"Why not, Tilly?" said Mrs. Candy.

"Who gave him the care of us?" said Matilda, thoughtfully.

"A minister always has the care of a church when he has a church," said Mrs. Candy. "Is this Tilly's way of going into things in general, Marianne?"

"_But_," said Matilda,--"can anybody take a church and take care of people, if he has a mind?"

"No; only a man who has been properly educated and appointed."

"Then how comes he to have the _care_ of us?"

"Come here, Tilly," said Clarissa. And she began a whispered explanation, to which the little girl listened intently.

"I do not hear yet what was the business done to-night?" Mrs.

Englefield went on.

"Why, there were committees formed," said Let.i.tia, "for doing every sort of business under heaven."

"Committees!" said the two ladies who had stayed at home.

"Maria can tell you," said Anne. "Maria, on how many committees are you?"

Maria hugged the fire and did not answer.

"On how many, Maria?"

"I don't know. I didn't count."

"I lost count, too," her sister said. "Let me see. Mamma, Maria has undertaken to find and bring in new scholars for the school."

"I hope she will be punctual in going herself, then," said Mrs.

Englefield. "She _hasn't_ been, this six months past, to my knowledge."

"Oh, but I am now, mamma," said Maria.

"She has undertaken to practise for the school singing."

"I didn't," said Maria. "I only said I would help in it."

"Your help will not be worth much without practising. She has promised to undertake temperance work, too. _How_ she will manage it, I do not know; unless she is going to begin upon us here at home. We are all such hard drinkers."

"Almost all the Sunday-School are engaged to help in temperance work,"

said Maria, standing on her defence.

"How are _you_ going to do anything?" her mother asked. "You have neither brothers, nor father, nor cousins, in danger, that you can go to work upon them. What are you going to do, Maria?"

"That is but the beginning, mamma," Anne went on. "Maria is also engaged to visit the sick and afflicted, and make soup and give medicine for them."

"Why, I did not, Anne!" Maria exclaimed again.

"What did you mean, then, by joining the 'Aid and Comfort' committee?"

"I did not say I would make soup, or give medicine. Everybody does not make soup."

"No; and so I thought that is just what the 'Aid and Comfort' committee agreed to do."

"And the doctors give the medicine," said Matilda. "Clarissa is on that committee too."

"We can go together," said Maria; "and we can find something to do."

"Something for somebody else to do," said Anne. "You can find who would like some soup, can't you?"

"There are next to no poor people in Shadywalk," said Mrs. Englefield.

"I don't believe there is anybody in the village who would like some soup better than I should."

"There are several doctors," said Anne; "so I am afraid there are sick people occasionally. Else the doctors will soon be in want of soup.

But, mamma, _that_ is not the whole of Maria's engagements. She has pledged herself to 'carry the message,' read the Bible, and distribute tracts."

"Don't you read the Bible now, Maria?" her mother asked.

"Oh yes, mamma," said Matilda. "This means reading the Bible to somebody who is blind, you know, or sick and can't read, or who doesn't know how."

"There are no such people in Shadywalk," said Mrs. Englefield, promptly.

"Shadywalk is a happy village then," said her sister.

"When do you expect to find time for all these things, Maria?" her mother continued. "Do you know what a state your bureau drawers are in, at this minute? You told me you had been too busy to attend to them.

And the frock that you spilt ink on, the week before last, at school, you have not mended; and you need it--and you said you could not get a minute."