`` We want the Aunties , if you please . Is n't this their shop ? '' said little Briggs , bitterly disappointed at not finding his good friends . `` You will find them over there at home as usual . Yes , this is their shop , and I 'm their niece . My husband is the Co. , and we run the shop for the aunts . I hope you 'll patronize us , gentlemen . '' `` We will ! we will ! Three cheers for Plummer & Co. ! '' cried Charley , leading off three rousers , that made the little shop ring again , and brought two caps to the opposite windows , as two cheery old faces smiled and nodded , full of satisfaction at the revolution so successfully planned and carried out . VII . A BRIGHT IDEA . `` No answer to my advertisement , mamma , and I must sit with idle hands for another day , '' said Clara with a despondent sigh , as the postman passed the door . `` You need n't do that , child , when I 'm suffering for a new cap , and no one can suit me so well as you , if you have the spirits to do it , '' answered her mother from the sofa , where she spent most of her time bewailing her hard lot . `` Plenty of spirits , mamma , and what is still more necessary , plenty of materials ; so I 'll toss you up ' a love of a cap ' before you know it . '' And putting her own disappointment out of sight , pretty Clara fell to work with such good-will that even poor , fretful Mrs. Barlow cheered up in spite of herself . `` What a mercy it is that when everything else is swept away in this dreadful failure I still have you , dear , and no dishonest banker can rob me of my best treasure , '' she said fondly , as she watched her daughter with tearful eyes . `` No one shall part us , mamma ; and if I can only get something to do we can be independent and happy in spite of our losses ; for now the first shock and worry is over , I find a curious sort of excitement in being poor and having to work for my living . I was so tired of pleasure and idleness I really quite long to work at something , if I could only find it . ''
But though XXXXX spoke cheerfully , she had a heavy heart ; for during the month which had followed the discovery that they were nearly penniless , she had been through a great deal for a tenderly nurtured girl of three-and-twenty .
Aunties Barlow Briggs Clara Co. VII day first independent rousers