“Ten dollars!” cried Mrs. Comstock.  “Ten dollars!  Why don’t you say a hundred and be done with it!  I could get one as easy as the other.  I told you!  I told you I couldn’t raise a cent.  Every year expenses grow bigger and bigger.  I told you not to ask for money!”

“I never meant to,” replied Elnora.  “I thought clothes were all I needed and I could bear them.  I never knew about buying books and tuition.”

“Well, I did!” said Mrs. Comstock.  “I knew what you would run into!  But you are so bull-dog stubborn, and so set in your way, I thought I would just let you try the world a little and see how you liked it!”

Elnora pushed back her chair and looked at her mother.

“Do you mean to say,” she demanded, “that you knew, when you let me go into a city classroom and reveal the fact before all of them that I expected to have my books handed out to me; do you mean to say that you knew I had to pay for them?”

Mrs. Comstock evaded the direct question.

“Anybody but an idiot mooning over a book or wasting time prowling the woods would have known you had to pay.  Everybody has to pay for everything.  Life is made up of pay, pay, pay!  It’s always and forever pay!  If you don’t pay one way you do another!  Of course, I knew you had to pay.  Of course, I knew you would come home blubbering!  But you don’t get a penny!  I haven’t one cent, and can’t get one!  Have your way if you are determined, but I think you will find the road somewhat rocky.”

“Swampy, you mean, mother,” corrected Elnora.  She arose white and trembling.  “Perhaps some day God will teach me how to understand you.  He knows I do not now.  You can’t possibly realize just what you let me go through to-day, or how you let me go, but I’ll tell you this:  You understand enough that if you had the money, and would offer it to me, I wouldn’t touch it now.  And I’ll tell you this much more.  I’ll get it myself.  I’ll raise it, and do it some honest way.  I am going back to-morrow, the next day, and the next.  You need not come out, I’ll do the night work, and hoe the turnips.”

It was ten o’clock when the chickens, pigs, and cattle were fed, the turnips hoed, and a heap of bean vines was stacked beside the back door.

CHAPTER II

WHEREIN WESLEY AND MARGARET GO SHOPPING, AND ELNORA’S WARDROBE IS REPLENISHED

Wesley Sinton walked down the road half a mile and turned at the lane leading to his home.  His heart was hot and filled with indignation.  He had told Elnora he did not blame her mother, but he did.  His wife met him at the door.

“Did you see anything of Elnora?” she questioned.

“Most too much, Maggie,” he answered.  “What do you say to going to town?  There’s a few things has to be got right away.”

“Where did you see her, Wesley?”