“I see you’ve been bawling,” said Mrs. Comstock.  “I thought you’d get your fill in a hurry.  That’s why I wouldn’t go to any expense.  If we keep out of the poor-house we have to cut the corners close.  It’s likely this Brushwood road tax will eat up all we’ve saved in years.  Where the land tax is to come from I don’t know.  It gets bigger every year.  If they are going to dredge the swamp ditch again they’ll just have to take the land to pay for it.  I can’t, that’s all!  We’ll get up early in the morning and gather and hull the beans for winter, and put in the rest of the day hoeing the turnips.”

Elnora again smiled that pitiful smile.

“Do you think I didn’t know that I was funny and would be laughed at?” she asked.

“Funny?” cried Mrs. Comstock hotly.

“Yes, funny!  A regular caricature,” answered Elnora.  “No one else wore calico, not even one other.  No one else wore high heavy shoes, not even one.  No one else had such a funny little old hat; my hair was not right, my ribbon invisible compared with the others, I did not know where to go, or what to do, and I had no books.  What a spectacle I made for them!” Elnora laughed nervously at her own picture.  “But there are always two sides!  The professor said in the algebra class that he never had a better solution and explanation than mine of the proposition he gave me, which scored one for me in spite of my clothes.”

“Well, I wouldn’t brag on myself!”

“That was poor taste,” admitted Elnora.  “But, you see, it is a case of whistling to keep up my courage.  I honestly could see that I would have looked just as well as the rest of them if I had been dressed as they were.  We can’t afford that, so I have to find something else to brace me.  It was rather bad, mother!”

“Well, I’m glad you got enough of it!”

“Oh, but I haven’t,” hurried in Elnora.  “I just got a start.  The hardest is over.  To-morrow they won’t be surprised.  They will know what to expect.  I am sorry to hear about the dredge.  Is it really going through?”

“Yes.  I got my notification today.  The tax will be something enormous.  I don’t know as I can spare you, even if you are willing to be a laughing-stock for the town.”

With every bite Elnora’s courage returned, for she was a healthy young thing.

“You’ve heard about doing evil that good might come from it,” she said.  “Well, mother mine, it’s something like that with me.  I’m willing to bear the hard part to pay for what I’ll learn.  Already I have selected the ward building in which I shall teach in about four years.  I am going to ask for a room with a south exposure so that the flowers and moths I take in from the swamp to show the children will do well.”

“You little idiot!” said Mrs. Comstock.  “How are you going to pay your expenses?”

“Now that is just what I was going to ask you!” said Elnora.  “You see, I have had two startling pieces of news to-day.  I did not know I would need any money.  I thought the city furnished the books, and there is an out-of-town tuition, also.  I need ten dollars in the morning.  Will you please let me have it?”