In the meantime the month of November drew to a close, and on the first day of December the amount of mail for the family at Glen Arden was unusually large. There was the grocer’s bill, and the butcher’s bill, and there were other household accounts; but in addition to these there was the one from the school-furniture store in Boston. It was addressed to Honor, and with an exclamation of dismay she glanced at the amount. Fifty-five dollars and eighty cents!
“Oh, Katherine!” she said, looking at her sister, and letting the bill fall into her lap.
“What is the matter?” asked Katherine. “You look as if you had seen a ghost.”
“I have,” said Honor, solemnly. “This is the bill for the schoolroom furniture.”
“Well, you expected it, didn’t you? How much is it?”
“Fifty-five dollars and eighty cents!”
“I am sure that isn’t very much,” returned Katherine, easily. “Scarcely more than fifty dollars.”
“But we haven’t got it. How are we going to pay for it, and why did you get all these things?” groaned Honor, as she looked at the items. “Five dollars for the globe, and we could easily have done without it, or used a little cheap one. Five dollars for the blackboard! And all this for copy-books and blank-books! You ought never to have bought them, and if you did, you oughtn’t to have had them charged. And have you begun to make any money with your typewriter yet?”
Katherine did not reply.
“Have you even learned to use it yet? Have you done anything with it? The money you spent on that typewriter might just as well have been thrown into the river. Katherine, Katherine, how could you do it! I verily believe we shall have to apply to Aunt Sophia for help.”