rer vision than
can be expected of most girls of her age. In a vague way she had
understood that it is oftentimes wiser to make a present sacrifice for
some greater future gain. So she had persuaded Dick to use the little
money that he had for his work, assuring him that she and her mother
could get on perfectly well together at home. And with half a dozen
summer boarders at the time of his leaving, it did look to Dick as
though her confidence was not misplaced.

Now in answer to her mother's speech Betty said nothing at first. So
that several tears sliding down Mrs. Ashton's cheeks watered her hot
buttered toast.

"I am sure I never expected to live to see this day, my dear, when you
would have to cook your own breakfast and mine before you could leave
for school," she murmured. "Why, I never thought that you would have
to turn over your hand even to look after yourself. Until you
developed that Camp Fire enthusiasm you had not been taught a single
useful thing. After all, perhaps it might have been better for you if
I had never been your mother, if----"

Betty laughed teasingly. "My dear Mrs. Ashton, you talk as if you
could have avoided that affliction! You could not very well have
helped being my mother, could you? You did not deliberately choose me
out from a lot of girls. Because if you did, I should have very little
respect for your good judgment. Think, if you might have selected
either Polly or Esther! Why, then you would be sure to be rich again
some day. For one of them would act so marvelously that she would be
able to cast laurels at your feet, while the other would sing you back
to fortune. But as it is, you will just have to put up with poor me
until Dick gets his chance. Now do eat your breakfast while I relate
the details of our good luck storm. In the first place, we are not
going to have to give up our beloved house. At least not yet, and
perhaps never if our German-American Pension plan turns out
satisfactorily."

Betty drank a swallow of coffee, hardly appreciating what she was
doing, so deep was her absorption in their affairs.

"Honestly, mother, I should never have dreamed of being so interested
in this plan of Rose's and Miss McMurtry's for us, if it had not been
for Dick's letters. But if German ladies can keep successful pensions,
why not Americans? Remember what a funny lot of people Dick has
described--the fat widow with the two musical daughters. I hope one of
th