“But the others have no punching bag,” said Tom in an injured tone, “and Jim brought George over especially to-day to practice.”

“Can’t you take the punching bag over to Jim’s?” suggested Migwan desperately.

“Sure,” said Jim good-naturedly; “that’s a good idea.”  So the boys unscrewed the object of attraction and departed with it, their pockets bulging with ginger cookies which Migwan gave them as a reward for their trouble.  Silence fell on the house and Migwan returned to the mastering of the sum of the angles.  Geometry was the bane of her existence and she was only cheered into digging away at it by the thought of the money lying in her name in the bank, which she had received for giving the clew leading to little Raymond Bartlett’s discovery the summer before, and which would pay her way to college for one year at least.

The theorem was learned at last so that she could make a recitation on it, even if she did not understand it perfectly, and Migwan left it to take up a piece of work which gave her as much pleasure as the other did pain.  This was the writing of a story which she intended to send away to a magazine.  She wrote it in the back of an old notebook, and when she was not working at it she kept it carefully in the bottom of her shirtwaist box, where the prying eyes of her younger sister would not find it.  She had all the golden dreams and aspirations of a young authoress writing her first story, and her days were filled with a secret delight when she thought of the riches that would soon be hers when the story was accepted, as it of course would be.  If she had known then of the long years of cruel disillusionment that would drag their weary length along until her efforts were finally crowned with success it is doubtful whether she would have stayed in out of the October sunshine so cheerfully and worked with such enthusiasm.

Migwan’s family could have used to advantage all the gold which she was dreaming of earning.  After her father died her mother’s income, from various sources, amounted to only about seventy-five dollars a month, which is not a great amount when there are three children to keep in school, and it was a struggle all the way around to make both ends meet.  Mrs. Gardiner was a poor manager and kept no accounts, and so took no notice of the small leaks that drained her purse from month to month.  She was fond of reading, as Migwan was, and sat up until midnight every night burning gas.  Then the next morning she would be too tired to get up in time to get the children off to school, and they would depart with a hasty bite, according to their own fancy, or without any breakfast at all, if they were late.  She bought ready-made clothes when she could have made them herself at half the cost, and generally chose light colors which soiled quickly.  She never went to the store herself, depending on Tom or scatter-brained Betty, her younger daughter, to do her marketing, and in consequence paid the highest prices for inferior-grade goods.