“She is not going to stop,” declared Josie, earnestly. “What she will do, perhaps will not be so costly from a financial standpoint, but it will mean sacrifices which will be more costly in other ways. If I know our Mary Louise, and I think I do, she will rise superior to this disaster and come out stronger and finer than ever.”
“Maybe you are right, Josie,” sighed Elizabeth, “but all the same, money is money and there is no substitute for it.”
“That’s just it, money is money and nothing but money. I have been saying that all along. Money is all right in its place, but it is a better thing to work for than to have and I, for one, am glad Mary Louise is going to have to work for it for a while. It will do her good, poor dear child! I know how good it was for me, after my father died, to open up this shop and get busy. It didn’t lessen my loss any, but it gave me strength to bear it.”
Elizabeth and Irene were silent. They agreed with Josie that it might be good for their friend to have something to take her mind off her terrible sorrow, but they did not feel that losing all her worldly goods was necessary. She might have adopted some orphans or endowed a hospital. There were plenty of occupations in which her money could have helped that would have done just as well in alleviating sorrow as this loss of fortune.
“Has Mrs. Burton sent a check yet for that order we filled for candle shades?” asked Josie as she looked over the firm’s books.
“No!” answered Elizabeth. “She has not. She has been owing us for three months now.”
“Send another bill and stamp the cheerful little ‘Please remit’ in red ink,” suggested Josie, sternly. “She must think we are in business for our health.”
“To hear you run down money one might think we are,” teased Elizabeth.
“Not at all! I don’t run down money at all. I run down money that is too easy—money one doesn’t have to work for. I have some myself that my father left me and I don’t think near as much of it as I do of my share on the commission the Higgledy Piggledy gets for that order for candle shades Mrs. Burton keeps forgetting to pay. I appreciate my father’s working as he did to leave me some money, but I appreciate a lot more his trying to teach me a trade.”
“But Josie, while you have been philosophizing about the most satisfactory methods of obtaining happiness through lack of wealth, have you thought of anything Mary Louise can do to earn her living?” asked Irene. “Uncle Peter and Aunt Hannah want her to come live with us and Uncle Peter says what he has is as much hers as his. He had a mighty strong feeling for the Colonel and Aunt Hannah simply adores Mary Louise—she always has. Of course, it goes without saying what I think of her.”