But I reckon it
soon will be," she added with an emphatic little nod. "Papa shall learn
that I can do something more for him than cook, and your example has fired
my ambition. I'll ransack this town till I find something to do that will
bring money. Dear old Mrs. Bodine! wasn't she perfectly enchanting
yesterday? Do you think I can be content to live in idleness on her
slender means? No, indeed. I'd buy a scrubbing-brush first. Oh, isn't this
fun?" and the flour was already up to her elbows.
"Oh, Ella, dear, I'd feel just as you do if I had a father to work for."
"Now, Mara, don't talk so, or I'll put my floury arms right about your
neck and spoil this dough with a flood of briny tears. See, the sun is
shining and there is work to be done. Let's be jolly, and we'll have our
little weep after sundown. Oh, Mara, dear, I wish I could make you as
light-hearted as I am. I used to think it was almost wicked for me to be
so light-hearted, but I don't think so any more, for I know I've kept papa
from going down into horrid depths of gloom. And then this irrepressible
spirit of fun helps me over ever so many hard places." She sprang back
into the middle of the room, and, striking a serio-comic attitude,
continued: "Here I am in no end of trouble--for me. There is a grief
preying on my vitals that would make a poet's hair stand on end should he
attempt to portray it. Were there a lover around the corner, sighing like
a furnace, I would say to him 'Avaunt! My heart is broken, and do you
think I can bother with you?' I am at odds with fate.
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