She loved her brightness and cheerfulness.

When Huldah laughed and sang she was quite content, but the moment she was sad or quiet, Aunt Emma would grow peevish and uneasy.
"You'm fretting because you've got to stay here with me, I know.
You'm longing to be back with that Mrs.Perry.

I know it's 'ard to 'ave to live with a poor miserable creature like me, and I wonder you can bear it as well as you do." Then she would burst into tears.

It never occurred to her that she might try to make it less miserable for Huldah, by trying to be cheerful herself sometimes.
"I'm not fretting.

I love taking care of you," pleaded poor Huldah.
"I was only trying to think how to make a new-shaped basket that people might take a fancy to.