The parrot yelled after her for the last time, “I don’t care if you never come back!” The foreign maid scowled her down the grand stairway; and Beth went away feeling really sorry to be parted from Mrs. Severn.
The next few days were those of hurry and bustle incident to the closing of any large school; and finally Beth and Molly were off on the Water Wagtail again for their trip down the river—and home.
CHAPTER XXII
A RENEWED RESOLVE
Beth only half promised to go to Hambro later in the summer to visit Molly Granger and the seven aunts. She was not at all sure that she could accomplish it, for she did not know exactly how she should find things at home.
Molly said: “If you don’t come, Bethesda, I’ll advance on Hudsonvale some day soon, with all the aunts at my back, and like a crew of brigands we will capture you and carry you bodily away.”
There was more cheerfulness in the atmosphere at home than Beth expected to find. Mr. Baldwin had obtained some light work that paid a few dollars every week, Marcus had been raised by his employer to five dollars, and the family in the Bemis Street cottage was getting along fairly well.
Of course, there were no new dresses, and Mrs. Baldwin was doing her own washing and ironing with the smaller girls’ help, while what came upon the table was very plain. “We fortunately have no rent to pay, and the taxes are small,” Mrs. Baldwin said.
When Beth produced the hundred dollars she had saved, her mother really seemed more troubled than amazed.
“Why—why, Beth! you are quite wonderful. I will put it with that other fifty you sent——”
“Haven’t you used that?” cried her daughter.