148 THE GARDEN OF A 



for; consequently, as I don't wish to find things 

 amiss, I shall never look for trouble. If we had 

 taken a little place of our own with a horse, cow, 

 and garden, we should have had to keep a maid 

 and a man, should we not ? " 



" Certainly." 



"And father must still have kept two maids and 

 a man ? " 



" I suppose so." 



" Then where is the extravagance of three women 

 and two men when we live together?" 



"That's not the way to look at it. When two 

 families live in one house, it is that they may get 

 on with less, else why do it ? " she added trium- 

 phantly. 



Poor Aunt Lot ! she has always made of life a 

 sort of combination bargain sale, a debit and credit 

 account, with material loss and gain her only stand- 

 ard, at least until she married the Methodist min- 

 ister; and then I verily believe the gain that tempted 

 her was holding domestic authority over the mother- 

 less eight. 



" I think you are mistaken," I said, swallowing my 

 wrath ; " that is the sort of family combination that 

 fails and brings discredit upon the word. Coopera- 

 tion is the having more of everything" (I was going 



