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stop your everlasting puttering over paint and embroidery, and do something
The atmosphere did not brighten as the evening drew on.

      “It is Betsey’s business to attend to the fire,” said Mary with dignity. Already she felt her half-formed resolution slipping away. She was cold, and the dimly lighted room looked very cheerless; and both Aunt Eunice and Lucia were evidently in ill-humor. What was the use in trying to be anything but miserable?
      “Oh, Betsey!” echoed Aunt Eunice spitefully. “The things you expect of that girl she couldn’t get through with in a day, if she was as smart as she is dull and stupid. I don’t wonder she never gets her work done, I am sure. You put too much on her. If you two girls would stop your everlasting puttering over paint and embroidery, and do something, your mother wouldn’t have such a hard time of it, and Betsey would stand a chance of getting her own work half [129] way done. I never in my life saw such management as you have here! How Edward endures it I don’t know. He was brought up very differently, I can tell you. The Camerons always had things in systematic order at their house; and each had his or her work to do.”
      “I wish our names were Rafferty instead of Cameron!” said Lucia, as she went hastily from the room; and she banged the door a little.
      The atmosphere did not brighten as the evening drew on.

from —
What They Couldn’t : A Home Story by Pansy (Mrs. G. R. Alden), author of “Ester Ried,” “Her Associate Members,” “Only Ten Cents,” “Wanted,” etc. Illustrated by Charles Mente. (Boston, 1895) : 128
U Wisconsin-Madison copy/scan (via hathitrust) : link
same (via hathitrust) : link
 

Isabella Macdonald Alden (1841-1930), writer of tales with moral/religious orientation
wikipedia : link

aunt of Grace Livingston Hill (1865-1947), author of evangelical romance fiction
wikipedia : link
 

2 October 2025