At last, brushing aside the hair which had fallen over her forehead, Billy said, "What are you thinking about ?" "I was wondering if Ella wouldn't forget me and Allie now she is rich and going to be a lady." Billy had thought the same thing, and lifting the little girl in his lap, he replied, "If _she_ does, I never will;"-- and then he told her again how, when he was older, and had money, he would take her from the poor-house and send her to school, and that she should some time be as much of a lady as Ella.
By this time Mrs.Grundy's work in the kitchen was done.

Patsy had been shaken for stealing a ginger cake; the lame woman had been scolded because her floor had dried in streaks, which was nothing remarkable considering how muddy it was.

Uncle Peter had been driven from the pantry for asking for milk, and now the lady herself had come up to change her morning apparel and don the high-crowned cap with the sky-blue ribbons.

Greatly was she surprised at the sound of voices in the room adjoining, and while Mary was still in Billy's lap the door opened, and Mrs.Grundy appeared, with her hands thrown up and the wide border of her morning cap, which also did night service for its fair owner, flying straight back.
"Mary Howard!" said she; "a _man_ up in this hall where no male is ever permitted to come! What does it mean?
I shall be ruined!" "No danger, madam, I assure you," said Billy.

"I came to bring Alice's cradle, and did not suppose there was any thing improper in coming up here." "It's nobody but Billy Bender," said Mary, frightened at Mrs.Grundy's wrathful looks.
"And who is Billy Bender?
A beau?
'Pears to me you are beginning young, and getting on fast, too, a settin' in his lap.