with tears, despite herself, as she looked around at the familiar room. “Our expenses are not great, and with the little we will realize from the sale of the house, I hope—” [Pg 23] Her chin was quivering a little, and her voice not wholly steady. I understood now why she had worn her last gown so long; I understood many things—and sprang into her arms sobbing, for suddenly I saw how thoughtless and selfish I had been; I had not helped her as I might have done, and the thought wrung me. The hat I could have done without, the ribbon I did not need, the ticket for the matinee— “I’ll go to work, dear mother!” cried Dick, jumping out of his chair, his face aglow. “Here am I, a big, hulking fellow of sixteen! It’s time I was doing something!” Mother looked up at him with a proud light in her eyes, and I went over to give him a hug. I never knew but one other boy who was anything like as nice as Dick. “And so will I,” I said. “I’m sure there’s lots of ways even a girl can make money—though of course not so easily as a boy,” and I looked at Dick a little enviously. [Pg 24] [Pg 24] “Never you worry,” he said, confidently. “I’ll take care of you, mother, and of you, too, Biffkins. I’ll start right away.” “There’s no such hurry,” said mother, smiling a little at our enthusiasm. “The mortgage isn’t due for two months yet, and I’d like you to finish this term at school, dear Dick. I had hoped that you could graduate, but I fear—” “We won’t fear anything!” cried Dick, throwing his arms around us both. “We’ll show this old world a thing or two before we’re done with it!” “That we will!” I echoed, with never a doubt of our ability to set the world whirling any way we chose. But in the days that followed, we both of us began to realize that the world was very big and indifferent, and our position in it exceedingly unimportant. Dick managed to pick up some odd jobs, which he could do out of school hours, but the actual returns in money were very small; and as for me, I soon acquired a deep distrust of those writers who described, in the columns of the magazines, the countless easy ways in which a girl could make a living. I tried some of them disastrously! [Pg 25]
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