“That’s one reason I feel that you are going to prove a good business woman. You have his blood in your veins and his ways about you. I see them cropping out constantly. Now, come on and tell me what plans you have made, even though you haven’t fixed on anything.”
“First, I think I’ll sell the car.”
“Which car?”
“The big new one, of course! Grandpa Jim’s old car wouldn’t bring in thirty cents and it is so precious to me somehow, I can’t bear to think of getting rid of it. I feel more strongly about it even than I did about his clothes. He changed his clothes and got rid of them as they wore out, but he hung on to his old car with such pertinacity that I feel like still hanging on to it. It has not been used for months but it’s jacked up out there in the garage. Do you think I am foolish?”
“No, my dear Mary Louise, I think you are very sensible. Certainly, the new car would bring in a tidy sum and give you bank account enough to look around a bit. Have Eben and Sally any savings?”
“Yes, they have been at no expense to speak of for many years and they have always had good wages. You know Grandpa Jim was always lavish in such expenditures. The dear old creatures have come and offered me their savings and are quite outdone because I refuse to touch them. In his will, Grandpa Jim mentions them, leaving them a farm he owns in Virginia and recommending that I see that they are well taken care of. He left them nothing but the farm but, thank goodness, that is a tangible something. I want them to go live on it and I believe they are beginning to look forward to it with some pleasure.”
“Splendid! That is surely a solution as far as the faithful retainers go. Now proceed! How about the house?” Josie was determined now, since she had started Mary Louise, she would keep her going until her plans took some shape and were in working order.
“Oh, the house! I can’t tell what to do about it. It is all I have and Uncle Peter Conant says a forced sale would be a great mistake, but if I can just put off selling it for several years, it might bring in a whole lot. I think I might rent it.”
“Furnished?”
“Y—e—s! But, oh, how I’d hate it! It would be awful to have strangers living with all of our household goods.”