d unrehearsed the other night, you proved you had both adaptability
and courage. I'd like to keep you in the theater. Will you come and be
a regular member of the company for the season that begins in
September next?'

"I think it must have been my ears that stopped my ever-widening
smile, while I made answer that I must ask my mother first.

"'To be sure,' said he, 'to be sure! Well, suppose you ask her then,
and let me know whether you can or not.'"

She says, "Looking back and speaking calmly, I must admit that I do
not now believe Mr. Ellsler's financial future depended entirely upon
the yes or no of my mother and myself; but that I was on an errand of
life or death every one must have thought who saw me tearing through
the streets on that ninety-in-the-shade day.... One man ran out
hatless and coatless and looked anxiously up the street in the
direction from which I came. A big boy on the corner yelled after me:
'Sa-ay, sis, where's the fire?' But, you see they did not know that I
was carrying home my first real earnings, that I was clutching six
damp one-dollar bills in the hands that had been so empty all my life!

"I had meant to take off my hat and smooth my hair, and with a proper
little speech approach my mother, and then hand her the money. But
alas! as I rushed into the house I came upon her unexpectedly, for,
fearing dinner was going to be late, she was hurrying things by
shelling a great basket of peas as she sat by the dining-room window.
At sight of her tired face all my nicely planned speech disappeared. I
flung my arm about her neck, dropped the bills on top of the empty
pods and cried:

"'Oh, mother, that's mine and it's all yours!'

"She kissed me, but to my grieved amazement put the money back into my
hand and said, 'No, you have earned this money yourself--you are to do
with it exactly as you please.'"

And that was why, the next morning, a much-excited and very rich young
person took a journey to the stores, and as a result bought a
lavender-flowered muslin dress which, when paid for, had made quite a
large hole in the six dollars. By her expression and manner she
plainly showed how proud and happy she was to be buying a dress for
the mother who for thirteen years had been doing and buying for two.
"Undoubtedly," says Miss Morris, "had there been a fire just then I
would have risked my life to save that flowered muslin gown."

Up to that time, the only world Clara Morris had known had be