“No, my dear. We have not had to.”
“We’ve nearly half the sum you borrowed for me, and can soon pay it all back, for I shall get more work this summer,” Beth declared briskly. “I shall start right out to call upon the folks in town and show them the work I can do mending lace and silk hose and the like. I can make more at such work, if I can get enough of it to do, than I possibly could in a store or at the factory.”
“But, my dear child——”
“It is my duty to do it, Mamma—and I love it,” Beth said firmly. “The money you borrowed was spent for me. I’ll make up the whole in time.”
“It was not a loan to be paid back—at once,” said Mrs. Baldwin, desperately.
“Why, Mamma! what do you mean? All loans must be paid.”
“At least,” the troubled mother hastened to add: “You are not to try to repay it. This hundred and fifty dollars you have earned so bravely in your school year, must be kept to help pay your next year’s fees at Rivercliff.”
“Oh, Mother! I cannot do it,” cried Beth. “I must help you here. It is only right that I should.”
“Let me be the judge of that, Daughter,” Mrs. Baldwin said. “I thought you had resolved to win your teacher’s certificate—and at Rivercliff?”
“But, how can I?” murmured Beth. “It is impossible.”