Did Dickon and your mother like to hear you talk about me ?" "Why, our Dickon's eyes nearly started out o' his head, they got that round," answered Martha.

"But mother, she was put out about your seemin' to be all by yourself like.

She said, 'Hasn't Mr.Craven got no governess for her, nor no nurse ?' and I said, 'No, he hasn't, though Mrs.Medlock says he will when he thinks of it, but she says he mayn't think of it for two or three years.'" "I don't want a governess," said Mary sharply.
"But mother says you ought to be learnin' your book by this time an' you ought to have a woman to look after you, an' she says: 'Now, Martha, you just think how you'd feel yourself, in a big place like that, wanderin' about all alone, an' no mother.

You do your best to cheer her up,' she says, an' I said I would." Mary gave her a long, steady look.
"You do cheer me up," she said.

"I like to hear you talk." Presently Martha went out of the room and came back with something held in her hands under her apron.
"What does tha' think," she said, with a cheerful grin.