`` Sister Dawes has done well by them children , and I hope Mr. Bemis sees it . He ought to give her something comfortable to live on when she ca n't do for him any longer . He can well afford it . '' `` I have n't a doubt he will . He 's a lavish man when he starts to do a thing , but dreadful unobserving , else he 'd have seen to matters long ago . Them children was town-talk last fall , and I used to feel as if it was my bounden duty to speak to Miss Dawes . But I never did , fearing I might speak too plain , and hurt her feelings . '' `` You 've spoken plain enough now , and I 'm beholden to you , though you 'll never know it , '' said Miss Bat to herself , as she slipped into her own gate , while the gossips trudged on quite unconscious of the listener behind them . Miss Bat was a worthy old soul in the main , only , like so many of us , she needed rousing up to her duty . She had got the rousing now , and it did her good , for she could not bear to be praised when she had not deserved it . She had watched Molly 's efforts with lazy interest , and when the girl gave up meddling with her affairs , as she called the housekeeping , Miss Bat ceased to oppose her , and let her scrub Boo , mend clothes , and brush her hair as much as she liked . So Molly had worked along without any help from her , running in to Mrs. Pecq for advice , to Merry for comfort , or Mrs. Minot for the higher kind of help one often needs so much . Now Miss Bat found that she was getting the credit and the praise belonging to other people , and it stirred her up to try and deserve a part at least . `` Molly do n't want any help about her work or the boy : it 's too late for that ; but if this house do n't get a spring cleaning that will make it shine , my name ai n't Bathsheba Dawes , '' said the old lady , as she put away her bonnet that night , and laid energetic plans for a grand revolution , inspired thereto not only by shame , but by the hint that `` Mr. Bemis was a lavish man , '' as no one knew better than she . Molly 's amazement next day at seeing carpets fly out of window , ancient cobwebs come down , and long-undisturbed closets routed out to the great dismay of moths and mice , has been already confided to the cats , and as she sat there watching them lap and gnaw , she said to herself , -- `` I do n't understand it , but as she never says much to me about my affairs , I wo n't take any notice till she gets through , then I 'll admire everything all I can . It is so pleasant to be praised after you 've been trying hard . '' She might well say that , for she got very little herself , and her trials had been many , her efforts not always successful , and her reward seemed a long way off . Poor Boo could have sympathized with her , for he had suffered much persecution from his small schoolmates when he appeared with large gray patches on the little brown trousers , where he had worn them out coasting down those too fascinating steps . As he could not see the patches himself , he fancied them invisible , and came home much afflicted by the jeers of his friends . Then Molly tried to make him a new pair out of a sack of her own ; but she cut both sides for the same leg , so one was wrong side out .
Fondly hoping no one would observe it , she sewed bright buttons wherever they could be XXXXX , and sent confiding Boo away in a pair of blue trousers , which were absurdly hunchy behind and buttony before .
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