been away from it for this long in forty year. You, Clara, and the [Pg 15]girl—we’ll try to find a sensible name for her—I’ve been thinkin’ about Martha or Susan—” [Pg 15] “Oh, no,” I broke out passionately; “I won’t be—” But grandaunt silenced me with one flash of her glasses. “You two,” she continued, “will go home with me. But I can’t have any boy rampagin’ around my house—the girl’s bad enough!” and she stopped to glare at Dick, to whom she had taken an unaccountable dislike. “So I’ll place him at a school I know of—a place where he’ll be given the right kind of trainin’, and get some of the foolishness took out of him—” “But we can’t be separated, Aunt Nelson!” cried mother. “It would break my heart and—look at him!—I know it would break his.” Indeed Dick was turning a very white and frightened face from one to the other, with his hands clutching at his chair; but he choked back the sob that rose in his throat and pressed his lips tight together with that pluck I always admired in him. Old Dick! “Tut-tut!” cried grandaunt. “Break, indeed! who ever heard of a heart breaking outside of silly novels? Nonsense!” “Indeed it isn’t nonsense!” and mother looked [Pg 16]at grandaunt with such a fire in her eye as I had never seen there. “I tell you plainly, Aunt Nelson, that I will never consent to any such plan.” [Pg 16] There was a tone in her voice which could not be mistaken. Grandaunt glared at her a moment in astonishment, as at a sheep turned lion; then she hopped from her chair as though it had suddenly become red-hot. “You’ve made up your mind?” she demanded. “Is that your last word?” “Yes,” said mother, resolutely. “If you will help us on no other terms, then we must get along as best we can without your help.” Grandaunt’s lips tightened until her mouth was the merest line across her face. “Very well, Clara,” she said, in a voice like thin ice. “You’ll go your road, then, and I’ll go mine! I’ll always have the comfort of knowin’ that I offered to do my duty by you. I hope your children’ll thank you for this day.” “They will!” cried mother, her head erect, her eyes blazing. “They will!”
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