"Now, Ellen, let us talk this out. The farm belongs to you and me—isn't it sensible that we stay here and work it? Millie isn't such a strong person as some and she may be from time to time laid up, and then there would have to be hired help. Isn't it foolish to hire a woman when you are well and strong?"
"Oh, but, Matthew, I'm going to college! It's all settled! You know that I'm to go to college!"
Silence was Matthew's answer. It was a pity that Ellen was still stubborn. Grandfather took off his spectacles.
"Ellen," he began patiently, "you don't understand business matters. The farm is much run down and Matthew means to build it up. If he gives it the attention it should have, and makes new fences, and gets the implements and lime and everything needed, there won't be any extra income for five years anyhow."
"Then I shall be too old to go to college!"
"You know already far more than is necessary."
"But if I'm not willing to stay here, if I think it's wrong, if I refuse?" Ellen's voice was still steady.
"I don't wish to be hard on you, Ellen. My heart yearns over you. But I'm your natural guardian and I have control over your property. I think that Matthew's plan is correct, and that it should be carried out. You can't expect him in these first years to run a farm and raise a family and pay an income besides!"
"But there was Father's will that he wished me to write," said Ellen, still steadily. "His last thought was that I should be educated."
"It is this way, Ellen. Your father left no real will. He had about five thousand dollars saved. Now half of five thousand is two thousand five hundred, and the income on that is only a little over a hundred dollars a year. That would not take you far."