they might take the
land from her. That meant he'd spent what he had in the bank on
Sally's wedding, and all that was in the Underground Station, or maybe
the Station money wasn't his.

Just when he was awfully bothered, mother said to never mind, she
believed she could fix it. She sent all of us into the orchard to pick
the fine apples that didn't keep well, and father made three trips to
town to sell them. She had big jars of lard she wouldn't need before
butchering time came again, and she sold dried apples, peaches, and
raspberries from last year. She got lots of money for barrels of
feathers she'd saved to improve her feather beds and pillows; she said
she would see to that later. Father was so tickled to get the money to
help him out that he said he'd get her a pair of those wonderful new
blue geese like Pryors had, that every one stopped to look at. When
there was not quite enough yet, from somewhere mother brought out money
that she'd saved for a long time, from butter and eggs, and chickens,
and turkeys, and fruit and lard, and things that belonged to her.
Father hated to use it the worst way, but she said she'd saved it for
an emergency, and now seemed to be the time.

She said if the child really had talent, she should be about developing
it, and while there would be many who would have far finer things than
Shelley, still she meant her to have enough that she wouldn't be the
worst looking one, and so ashamed she couldn't keep her mind on her
work. Father said, with her face it didn't make any difference what
she wore, and mother said that was just like a man; it made all the
difference in the world what a girl wore. Father said maybe it did to
the girl, and other women; what he meant was that it made none to a
man. Mother said the chief aim and end of a girl's life was not
wrapped up in a man; and father said maybe not with some girls, but it
would be with Shelley: she was too pretty to escape. I do wonder if
I'm going to be too pretty to escape, when I put on long dresses.
Sometimes I look in the glass to see if it's coming, but I don't
suppose it's any use. Mother says you can't tell a thing at the
growing age about how a girl is going to look at eighteen.

When everything was almost ready, Leon came in one day and said:
"Shelley, what about improving your hair? Have you tried your wild
grape sap yet?"

Shelley said: "Why, goodness me! We've been so busy getting Sally
married, and my clo