The girl sat sewing; on the bed lay a child, asleep.
Totty, looking delighted at Thyrza's coming, held up her finger to impose quietness.

Thyrza took the only other chair there was, and drew it near to her friend.
'That's Nelly Bunce,' Totty said in a low voice, nodding to the bed.
'Just when I was going back to work, what did the child do but tumble head over heels half down stairs, running after me.

It's a wonder she don't kill herself.

I don't think there's no more harm done except a big bump on the back of the head, but Mrs.Ladds wasn't in, and I didn't like to go and leave the little thing; she cried herself to sleep.

So there's half a day lost! Thyrza kept silence.