"Very well, girls," she said, with a sigh, "if you will go without, I will, and we will form a total abstinence candy society. I know just how much that means for Jim, for I paid Maillard eight dollars last month."
"You are a good girl," spoke up Emma Jane, "and if you hold to that resolution, Milly Roseveldt, I will deal you out a cake of maple sugar every day, from a box I've just received from some Vermont cousins. I was wondering what I should do with it, for I don't care for sweets."
Milly's face brightened; all unconsciously she was doing as great a kindness to herself as to Jim, and the pure maple sugar was a good substitute for the unwholesome concoctions of the confectioner; it satisfied her craving for sweets, and did not poison her appetite.
The rest of us added our small contributions, but the aggregate only amounted to three dollars a week, and we were unable to learn of any boarding-school to which Jim could be sent at those rates.
Winnie had communicated Madame Céleste's offer to Mrs. Halsey. "It would be just the thing if I were alone," she replied, "but what would Jim do without me?"
"Perhaps you can board him somewhere," Winnie suggested; and she told of the sum which we girls had promised.
"If I knew of any respectable place where he would have good influences, I would accept your kindness, as a loan, for a little while," Mrs. Halsey replied, "for my first earnings must go for clothes. I have friends in Connecticut; perhaps they will take Jim."
But Mrs. Halsey found that her friends had moved West. She thanked us for our interest, but said that there seemed nothing better to do than to continue as they were.
"I can't bear to tell Madame Céleste that she declines her offer," said Adelaide. "We must find a place for that boy."
"I don't see how," replied Winnie; but she saw, that afternoon; it came to her all by a sudden inspiration during our botany lesson.