– Tomorrow we'll go to the river to wash," said Catherine, folding her father's dirty dresses and clothes on top of the chest.
Christine murmured something in reply and went back into her thoughts, so that she could bear the hardships of life more easily.
– I want to go to the river too! – Cassie said she liked to run along the bank and throw stones into the water.
– No, darling, you're not quite well yet," Kate told her. – You're going to stay home with Dad.
– Daddy promised to make me a new doll, but he didn't! – Cassie frowned and crossed her arms across her chest resentfully.
– He's just forgotten: he's got a lot to do at church now," Kate reassured her.
– Katie, can we sing about the chickens? – Cassie asked with a smile.
– No, that's not a good song. Let's sing a hymn.
Christine rolled her eyes and her beautiful lips spread into a smile full of sarcasm.
"What a bigot she is! Thinks there's nothing else in the world but her religion!" – she thought mockingly as she swept the floor, then decided to mend a hole in the hem of her dress, which was constantly tearing because of the old fabric.
– Chris, have you swept yet? – Kate turned to her.
Christine looked up and saw her sister fiddling at the dining room table.
– Almost, why? – She said.
– Father didn't have lunch today, so we have to take it to the church," Catherine said.
She filled a clay pot with porridge, put two slices of black bread beside it, and wrapped it all in a coarse white cloth.
– Why me again? – Christine asked unhappily.
– If you don't want it, I'll carry it myself, and you can sit with Cassie.
– No, I'd rather go to church. – She was startled by the possibility of spending time alone with her sick sister.
She quickly put the broom in the corner, put on her shoes, grabbed a bundle of food and left the house.
Cassie suddenly looked at Catherine with a look full of sadness and sorrow.
– Katie, why doesn't she love me? – She asked quietly, tears welling up in her eyes.
Catherine smiled affectionately at her, put aside her work on the dirty clothes and sat down on her knees next to her sister.
– 'Well, what have you come up with, sweetheart? Chris loves you, she just has a very bad temper," she said, stroking Cassie's hair.
She knew Cassie was right, but she was a child and extremely vulnerable, so she was better off not knowing that Christine couldn't forgive her for her mother's death.