Concerning Sally Part 16

"Well," asked Fox, sighing, "what is the question?" There seemed to be no escape.

"Where do we get our money? Do you give it to us?"

"But that," he remonstrated, "makes two questions."

The quick tears rushed into Sally's eyes. "Oh, Fox, won't you tell me?"

Fox glanced at her and gave in at once. He told the strict truth, for nothing less would do, for Sally. He couldn't have told anything else, with those solemn, appealing gray eyes looking at him.

"I'll tell you, Sally," he said quickly. "Just trust me."

Sally smiled. It was like a burst of suns.h.i.+ne. "I do."

"I know it," he returned, "and I'm proud of it. Well, I have been advancing what money has been needed for the past three months. You can't say I've given it to you. I'd rather say us, Sally. So you see, you can't say I've given it to us, for we--Henrietta and I--have been here so very much that we ought to pay something. We ought to contribute. I don't like to call it board, but--"

"Why not?" Sally asked, interrupting. "Why don't you like to call it board?"

"Well," Fox answered, rather lamely, "you don't take boarders, you know."

"I don't see," said Sally, brightening distinctly, "I can't see why we don't--why we shouldn't, if mother's well enough. I've been thinking."

"But that's just it. Your mother is not well enough for you to take regular, ordinary boarders. You mustn't think of it."

"Would you call you and Henrietta regular, ordinary boarders?" Sally asked, after a few moments of silence.

Fox laughed. "On the contrary, we are most irregular, extraordinary boarders. But why, Sally? Would you like to have--"

"Oh, yes," cried Sally at once. "I should like it very much. But I don't know whether you would."

"Yes, I should like it very much, too. But there have seemed to be certain reasons why it wasn't best to live here."

"But you live here now," Sally objected; "all but sleeping. We've got rooms enough."

"I'll think it over; and, if I think we can come, we will."

"I hope you will. I should feel comfortabler. Because I don't see how we can ever pay you back; at any rate, not for a long time. We should have to wait until I'm old enough to earn money, or until Charlie is.

And I'm four years older."

Fox smiled at the idea of waiting for Charlie. But Sally went on.

"And there's another thing. There's Doctor Galen."

"Oh, so the doctor's the other thing. I'll tell him."

"The money that we have to pay him is the other thing." Sally was very earnest. "Will it be much, do you think?"

"Sally, don't you worry. I asked the doctor just that question and he told me I had better wait until he sent his bill. He hasn't sent it yet."

"Well--will it be as much as a hundred dollars?"

"It is possible that it may be as much as that."

"Oh, will it be more?" Sally was distressed. When should she be able to save--even to earn a hundred dollars. "We can't ever pay it, Fox; not for years and years."

Again Fox told her not to worry. She did not seem to hear him. She was following her thought.

"And, Fox, if you have to pay it, we shall owe you an awful lot of money. Have--have you got money enough?"

Fox Sanderson did not have an "awful lot" of money. That very question had been giving him some anxiety. But he would not let Sally suspect it.

"I guess I'll be able to manage, Sally."

"I hope so. And I've been thinking, Fox, that I ought to help."

"Why, Sally, you do help. Just think of the things you do, every day, helping about your mother, and about the house."

"Yes," she returned, "but I mean about earning money. Those things don't earn money. Couldn't I learn typewriting and go into somebody's office? Or couldn't I teach? Do you have to know a lot of things, to teach, Fox?"

Fox smiled. "Some teachers that I have known," he answered, "haven't known such an awful lot of things. But if you really want to teach, Sally, you ought to be trained for it. At least," he added, more to himself than to Sally, "that is the popular opinion."

Again Sally was distressed. "Do you have to go to college, Fox?"

"Well," answered Fox, smiling, "not exactly, but something of the sort. There's a normal school or the training school for teachers, or whatever they call it."

"Oh, dear!" Sally wailed. "Everything takes so long! I wanted to do something right away. Can't you think of anything, Fox?"

"Not right off the bat. I'll see what thoughts I can raise on that subject. But if I don't think of anything, would you like to plan to be a teacher, Sally?"

"If it would help mother, I would. If that's the best thing we can think of. I'd do anything to help mother. I'd go out scrubbing or I'd sell papers or--or anything."

"Bless your heart!" Fox exclaimed under his breath. "Bless your dear heart, Sally! You needn't go out scrubbing or was.h.i.+ng dishes or selling papers or anything of the kind. You can do better than that.

And your mother is likely to need your help about as much when you are fitted for teaching as she does now."

"Is--isn't mother getting better?" asked Sally, hesitating.

"Yes," said Fox, "but very slowly; very slowly indeed. Doctor Galen thinks it will be some years before she is herself again. Think, Sally, how much better it will be for you to be getting ready. Suppose she was well now. What would you and she do? How would the conditions be different?"

Sally murmured something about taking boarders.

"Well," Fox observed, "I never have taken 'em and so I have no experience with that end of it. But Henrietta and I have been boarding for a good many years now--ever since mother died--and we have seen a good deal of all kinds of boarders. On the average, they seem to be an unmannerly and ungrateful lot. Don't you be a party to making 'em worse, Sally. Don't you do it."

Sally laughed.

"Besides," he went on, "it's pretty apt to be humiliating."

"I suppose that's something unpleasant," Sally said quietly, "and, of course, it wouldn't be pleasant. I shouldn't expect it to be."

"I don't believe there's any money in it."