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Page 31
Mrs. Howe remitted four dollars from the monthly rent, in consideration
of Spanish lessons given to her two oldest children. This experiment
proved a success, and Polly next accepted an offer to come three times
a week to the house of a certain Mrs. Baer to amuse (instructively) the
four little Baer cubs, while the mother Baer wrote a "History of the
Dress-Reform Movement in English-Speaking Nations."
For this service Polly was paid ten dollars a month in gold coin, while
the amount of spiritual wealth which she amassed could not possibly be
estimated in dollars and cents. The ten dollars was very useful, for
it procured the services of a kind, strong woman, who came on these
three afternoons of Polly's absence, put the entire house in order, did
the mending, rubbed Mrs. Oliver's tired back, and brushed her hair
until she fell asleep.
So Polly assisted in keeping the wolf from the door, and her sacrifices
watered her young heart and kept it tender. "Money may always be a
beautiful thing. It is we who make it grimy."
Edgar shared in the business conferences now. He had gone into
convulsions of mirth over Polly's system of accounts, and insisted,
much against her will, in teaching her book-keeping, striving to
convince her that the cash could be kept in a single box, and the
accounts separated in a book.
These lessons were merry occasions, for there was a conspicuous cavity
in Polly's brain where the faculty for mathematics should have been.
"Your imbecility is so unusual that it 's a positive inspiration,"
Edgar would say. "It is n't like any ordinary stupidity; there does
n't seem to be any bottom to it, you know; it 's abnormal, it 's
fascinating, Polly!"
Polly glowed under this unstinted praise. "I am glad you like it," she
said. "I always like to have a thing first-class of its kind, though I
can't pride myself that it compares with your Spanish accent, Edgar;
that stands absolutely alone and unapproachable for badness. I don't
worry about my mathematical stupidity a bit since I read Dr. Holmes,
who says that everybody has an idiotic area in his mind."
There had been very little bookkeeping to-night. It was raining in
torrents. Mrs. Oliver was talking with General M---- in the parlor,
while Edgar and Polly were studying in the dining-room.
Polly laid down her book and leaned back in her chair. It had been a
hard day, and it was very discouraging that a new year should come to
one's door laden with vexations and anxieties, when everybody naturally
expected new years to be happy, through January and February at least.
"Edgar," she sighed plaintively, "I find that this is a very difficult
world to live in, sometimes."
Edgar looked up from his book, and glanced at her as she lay back with
closed eyes in the Chinese lounging-chair. She was so pale, so tired,
and so very, very pretty just then, her hair falling in bright
confusion round her face, her whole figure relaxed with weariness, and
her lips quivering a little, as if she would like to cry if she dared.
Polly with dimples playing hide and seek in rosy cheeks, with dazzling
eyes, and laughing lips, and saucy tongue, was sufficiently
captivating; but Polly with bright drops on her lashes, with a pathetic
droop in the corners of her mouth and the suspicion of a tear in her
voice,--this Polly was irresistible.
"What's the matter, pretty Poll?"
"Nothing specially new. The Baer cubs were naughty as little demons
to-day. One of them had a birthday-party yesterday, with four kinds of
frosted cake. Mrs. Baer's system of management is n't like mine, and
until I convince the children I mean what I say, they give me the
benefit of the doubt. The Baer place is so large that Mrs. Baer never
knows where disobedience may occur, and that she may be prepared she
keeps one of Mr. Baer's old slippers on the front porch, one in the
carriage-house, one in the arbor, one in the nursery, and one under the
rose hedge at the front gate. She showed me all these haunts, and told
me to make myself thoroughly at home. I felt tempted to-day, but I
resisted."
"You are working too hard, Polly. I propose we do something about Mrs.
Chadwick. You are bearing all the brunt of other people's faults and
blunders."
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