“Who am I?” asked Beth. “Better than other girls? You’ve taught me to sweep, to dust, to make beds, and to be tidy.”
“Oh, yes,” Mrs. Baldwin hastened to say. “Every girl should learn the domestic duties.”
Beth began to giggle at that. “Larry says not. He’s going to hire a cook when he gets married. He forgets that the cook may leave suddenly. I believe they have a way of doing that.”
“For goodness’ sake!” gasped her mother. “What didn’t you and Larry talk about last night?”
“Why—lots of things. We didn’t have much time to really talk. We’ll wait till he comes here to see us to have a really old-fashioned confab together,” Beth said laughing. “But he’s a funny boy!”
“I tell you he is a boy no longer,” Mrs. Baldwin said, a little worried.
“Oh, wait till you see him. He’s just the same old sixpence of a Larry. You’ll see, Mamma. But he is handsome in his dress suit. Doesn’t look at all like an undertaker.”
Mrs. Baldwin, shaking her head, rejoined:
“For you to go to work at any domestic service is out of the question. And your father would never hear to your working in the factory.”
“What shall I do then, Mamma? Peddle? Be an agent? Go from house to house and try to make people buy what they don’t want and don’t need and really would be better off without?” and Beth laughed gaily. “Or shall I go right out with a mask and a club and become a highway robber?”