--is to
get well an' strong. Then the future'll take care of itself."

"But meanwhile," Claire persisted, "I'm living on you. Eating food for
which I haven't the money to pay, having loving care for which I
couldn't pay, if I had all the money in the world. I guess I know how
you settled my account with Mrs. Daggett. You gave her money you had
been saving for the rent, and now you are working, slaving overtime, at
four o'clock mornings, sweeping down the stairs, and late nights, making
shirtwaists for Mrs. Snyder, to help supply what's lacking."

"Just you wait till I see that Cora," observed Mrs. Slawson
irrelevantly. "That's the time _her_ past will have slopped over on her
present, so's she can't tell which is which. Just you wait till I see
that Cora!"

"No, no--_please_! Martha _dear_! It wasn't Cora! She's not to blame.
I'd have known sooner or later anyway. I always reason things out for
myself. Please promise not to scold Cora."

"Scold Cora? Not on your life, my dear; I won't scold Cora. I'm
old-fashioned in my ways with childern. I don't believe in scoldin'. It
spoils their tempers, but a good _lickin'_ oncet in a while, helps 'em
to remember, besides bein' good for the circulation."

Claire was ready to cry. "It's all my fault," she lamented. "I was
clumsy. I was tactless. And now Cora will be punished for it, and--I
make nothing but trouble for you all."

"There, there! For mercy sake, don't take on like that. I promise I'll
let Cora go free, if you'll sit back quiet an' eat your dinner in peace.
So now! That's better!"

"What I was going to say, Martha dear, is, I'm quite well and strong
now, and I want to set about immediately looking for something to do. I
ought to be able to support myself, you know, for I'm able-bodied, and
not so stupid but that I managed to graduate from college. Once, two
summers ago, I tutored--I taught a young girl who was studying to take
the Wellesley entrance exams. And I coached her so well she went through
without a condition, and she wasn't very quick, either. I wonder if I
couldn't teach?"

"Shoor, you could!"

"If I could get a position to teach in some school or some family, I
could, maybe, live here with you--rent this room--unless you have some
other use for it."

"Lord, no! I _call_ it the boarder's room because this flat is really
too rich for my blood, but you see I don't want the childern brought up
in a bad neighborhood with low companions. Well, Sammy