fine clothes such as she had!

"Mother," she began; "I have changed my mind about going to school. I
have decided to remain here with father and you."

"Oh, Poll! You just can't!" cried Eleanor.

"Why this sad countenance, daughter, if you believe you will be happier
here than away?" countered Mrs. Brewster.

"Because I am as miserable as Daddy about leaving."

Mrs. Brewster laughed merrily, albeit she felt no joy in her soul. "Then
the sooner we dispel this gloom by packing you off, the better. I
haven't the slightest doubt but that you will wonder at your present
attitude, the moment John and Tom have gone. Once let every young person
leave us here all alone for the long solitary winter, and you will eat
your heart out to think that you could have been so mistaken as to
refuse this wonderful opportunity to make something of yourself and your
wealth."

Polly knew in her heart that her mother spoke the truth, but she never
dreamed what it cost that mother to speak cheerily as she did about her
only girl's going--in fact, almost persuading her to go. For that wise
mother had heard the yearnings in Polly's voice the day she spoke so
daringly of all her ambitions and of her future. And she understood that
this transitory spell of regret was merely the contagion of Mr.
Brewster's woe-be-gone thoughts and behavior.

"I'll get after Sam, and that good and plenty!" thought Mrs. Brewster to
herself, as she watched Polly with keen understanding.

"Poll, your mother says Anne is to get every last dud you need in the
swellest shops in New York. Because you and I will have plenty of money
for our future, and we must dress up to our station. Your mother said
our success in business would be influenced, to a great extent, by our
careful consideration of apparel. She is right."

"But, mother, you said to me, one time, that clothes should never occupy
a woman's mind," Polly said, wonderingly.

"I was right in saying so. I do not believe in having anything so
perishable as dress occupying anybody's mind. But that does not mean
that you should become careless of your appearance nor wear cheap and
vulgar apparel. I always felt that an individual expresses his own
position in life by the clothes he selects and wears. It is generally a
key to one's character. You will find that any one who has slip-shod
apparel, is careless in everything else in life, and one who dons gaudy
attire--cheap and destructible--will soon show you how s