“Well we ain’t bought the mules yit so I reckon th’ain’t no use in disputin’ whicher way we’ll hitch ’em up.”
The old couple finally got off. A whole box car was necessary to hold their belongings, which were freighted to them. Not only did they have the furnishings of their own room but many were the gifts from the big house added by Mary Louise.
“The old house is too full anyhow,” she insisted, “and I am sure no tenant would expect or want so many things.”
Aunt Sally and Uncle Eben were made happy with barrels of china and cooking utensils, also quantities of canned vegetables and fruits Aunt Sally had put up the summer before.
“Why doesn’t she keep some of those things?” Irene asked. “She will have to buy such things when she starts to housekeeping at the Higgledy Piggledy.”
“No, let them all go! I believe it will be better for Mary Louise to get down to rock bottom and have to begin to think about the actual earning of every necessity. If she has a lot of left-overs to begin on, the bare bones of living will still be an unknown skeleton to her and she might just as well get down to plain, hard, ossified facts.”
Irene smiled. She could not help thinking that for a person who prided herself on being practical, Josie certainly did let her theories run away with her. It seemed to Irene that Mary Louise had had jolt enough and now she might be let down easily without having to hit this much vaunted rock bottom with so much force. When she suggested this, Josie was ready with an answer to her argument.
“A ball can’t bounce back until it hits something but will go on falling and we are more or less like balls, my dear Irene. We can’t bounce until we hit—we can’t regain our footing until we have something to stand on. You wait until our poor little rich girl turns into a rich little poor girl and you are going to see wonders.”
Josie had her way and Mary Louise finally moved to the Higgledy Piggledy with nothing but her trunk and enough simple furniture to fit in the small space partitioned off at the back of the Higgledy Piggledy Shop for a sleeping compartment similar to the one Josie occupied.
A tenant for the big house had not been found but it was in perfect order ready to receive one. The new automobile had been sold and the welcome cash placed to Mary Louise’s credit at the bank to defray all expenses in getting the faithful Sally and Eben safe in Virginia with their household goods and also in putting a few necessary repairs on the big house, repairs the Colonel had been contemplating for some time, but had delayed in accomplishing.