“What’s all this, David, about your goin’ away to boardin’-school?” she asked truculently, standing in the doorway with her hands on her hips.
“Well, it’s true,” David answered.
“Ain’t there no good schools near home?”
“Yes, but not so good.”
“Funny thing that nothing but the best is ever good enough for some folks.”
David, disdaining to reply, held his book up in front of his eyes and pretended to read.
“It’s none of my business,” continued Maggie in a somewhat more pacific tone, “but I think your pa and your ma both need looking after, and you’d ought to stay home to do it. Of course what it means is, it’ll all fall on me; things always does.”
“Nothing’s going to fall on you; what do you mean, Maggie?”
“Oh, it’s all very well to talk. But everybody can see your pa’s been failin’ of late and is in for a spell of sickness, and your ma gets upset so easy it’s always a matter of coaxin’ and urgin’ her along.”