to come in here to you, and rage because I was so helpless! Well, I've
had experience since, bitter experience, and yet here I am, helpless
and a burden still!"

Miss Fanny smiled her wide, admiring smile. Without a word she reached
to a shelf behind her, and handed Martie a familiar old volume:
"Choosing a Life Work." The colour rushed into Martie's face as she
took it.

"I'll read it NOW!" she said simply.

"If you really want to work, Martie," suggested the older woman, "why
don't you come in here with me? Now that we've got the Carnegie
endowment, we have actually appropriated a salary for an assistant."

Martie looked at her thoughtfully, looked backward perhaps over the
long years.

"I will," she said.

CHAPTER II

There was a storm at home over this decision, but Martie weathered it.
Even Sally demurred, observing that people would talk. But one or two
persons approved, and if Martie had needed encouragement, it would not
have been wanting.

One of her sympathizers was Dr. Ben. The two had grown to be good
friends, and Martie's boy was as much at home in the little crowded
garden and the three-peaked house as Sally's children were.

"You're showing your common sense, Martie," said the old man; "stick to
it. I don't know how one of your mother's children ever came to have
your grit!"

"I seem to have brought little enough back from New York," Martie said
a little sadly. "But at least what Monroe thinks doesn't matter to me
any more! People do what they like in the East."

"You're coming on!" Dr. Ben smiled at his velvet wallflowers.

Surprisingly, Joe Hawkes was another ally. He came back in May,
penniless, but full of honours, and with his position in the new
hospital secure. A small, second-hand car, packed with Hawkeses of all
ages, began to be seen in Monroe streets, and Sally grew rosier and
fatter and more childish-looking every day. Sally would never keep her
hair neat, or care for hands or complexion, but evidently Joe adored
her as he had on their wedding day.

"Your father'll have nothing to leave, Martie," Joe said. "What little
the Estates don't eat up must go to Lydia, and if you make a start
here, why, you'll move on to something better!"

"Miss Fanny hasn't moved on to something better," Martie submitted with
a dubious smile.

"Miss Fanny isn't you, Mart. She's gotten a long way for her. You know
her father was the Patterson's hired man, and her mother actually had
tow