There were people who thought Mrs.Loudon did wrong in allowing her daughter to work for money in this way, but Kate's mother said that the end justified the work, and that so long as Kate persevered in her self-appointed tasks, she should not interfere.
As for Kate, she said she should work on, no matter how much money Harry made.

There was no knowing what might happen.
But the most important of Kate's duties was the personal attention she paid to Aunt Matilda.

She went over to the old woman's cabin every day or two, and saw that she was kept warm and had what she needed.
And these visits had a good influence on the old woman, for her cabin soon began to look much neater, now that a nice little girl came to see her so often.
When the spring came on, Aunt Matilda actually took it into her head to whitewash her cabin, a thing she had not done for years.

She and Uncle Braddock worked at it by turns.

The old woman was too stiff and rheumatic to keep at such work long at a time; but she was very proud of her whitewashing; and when she was tired of working at the inside of her cabin, she used to go out and whitewash the trunks of the trees around the house.