"
"It wouldn't do at all," said Bee, decidedly. "It would be like going
up two steps and then tumbling back two steps. No, it would be worse,
it would be like going up two and tumbling back three, for every
naughty day would make it still harder to begin again on the good
day."
"Well, I won't do that way, then," said Rosy, with wonderful
gentleness. "I'll either _go on_ trying to climb up the steps--
how funnily you say things, Bee!--or I'll not try at all. I'll tell you
to-morrow morning. But remember you're not to tell anybody.
If I fix to be good I want everybody to be surprised."
"But you won't get good all of a sudden, Rosy," said Bee, feeling
afraid that Rosy would again lose heart at the first break-down.
"Well, I daresay I won't," returned Rosy. "But don't you see if nobody
but you knows it won't so much matter. But if I was to tell everybody
then it would all seem pretending, and there's nothing so horrid as
pretending."
There was some sense in Rosy's ideas, and Bee did not go against them.
She went back to her own bed with a curious feeling of respect for
Rosy and a warm feeling of affection also.
"And it was very horrid of me to be thinking of her that way
to-night," said honest Bee to herself. "I'll never think of her that
way again. Poor Rosy, she has had no mother all these years that I've
had my mother doing nothing but trying to make me good.
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