Success in life comes from putting to use that gift, or those gifts, which the individual possesses and developing such talent to the highest degree of excellence. That is what Beth had done in her small way.
The opportunity to darn silk hose had come her way, and she had a natural taste for such work and ability in it, as well as considerable training from her mother. Out of the “silk stocking hospital” had grown the other mending. She was in a fair way to earn sufficient money during the year, in the vacation and all, to carry her through the subsequent two school years which she had originally resolved to obtain at Rivercliff.
But Mr. Baldwin’s illness seemed to preclude such an event. Beth kept bravely on with her work, but with a new resolve.
She wanted to carry home with her in June as much money as she could possibly earn with which to repay the loan she supposed her mother had made before Beth entered Rivercliff School.
In writing home Beth said very little about future plans, or even about her immediate work. That she was very busy, both with her books and outside work, they knew. Twice a week she heard from either her mother or Ella. Sometimes Marcus wrote.
Marcus was particularly proud of the fact that he had obtained a paying “job.” He brought his four dollars home each Saturday night, and felt himself to be a man.
“He is getting to be insufferably important,” Ella wrote. “If he could raise whiskers there would be no living in the house with him. I believe he has been pricing safety razors at the cutlery store. I tell him he will first have to lather his face with cream and let the cat lick it off.”
To tell the truth, Beth felt sometimes that Marcus was doing much more for the family than she ever could—and she was so much older. Of course, if she could have carried through her plans, in the end she might have been the family’s main support if her father’s illness continued. Now——
All her plans had tumbled. She could not see ahead. Living from day to day was not an easy thing for Beth Baldwin.
Soon after her father was taken ill she heard from Larry. He expressed his sorrow for Mr. Baldwin’s condition; and Beth knew he was at the Bemis Street cottage just as frequently as before the holidays. But Larry said nothing in his letter regarding the change the event of her father’s illness must make in Beth’s plans for an education.