The girl laid her hand tenderly on her mother's shoulder.'
“Why, Mother, dear—why, what's the matter? You look as if you had seen a ghost.”
Mrs. Todd drew her shawl closer about her shoulders and leaned nearer to the girl, her voice trembling:
“It's worse than a ghost, child—it's a debt! Debt along of money you never worked for; money somebody gives you sort o' friendly-like, and when you can't pay it back, they bite you, like dogs. No—let's sit here and starve first, child. We can shut the door and nobody 'll know we're hungry.” She straightened up and threw the shawl from her shoulders. Terror had taken the place of an undefined dread.
“You ain't gettin' discouraged, Abbie, be you?” she continued in a calmer tone. “Don't get discouraged, child. I got discouraged when I was younger than you, and I ain't never been happy since. You never knew why, and I ain't goin' to tell you now, but it's been black night all these years—all 'cept you. You've been the only thing made me live. If you get discouraged, child, I can't stand it. Say you ain't, Abbie—let me hear you say it—please Abbie!”
The girl rose from her chair and stood looking down at her mother. The sudden outburst, so unusual in one so self-restrained, the unmistakable suffering in the tones of her voice, thrilled and alarmed her. Her first impulse was to throw her arms about her mother's neck and weep with her. This had been her usual custom when the load seemed too heavy for her mother to bear. Then the more practical side of her nature asserted itself. It was strength, not sympathy, she wanted. Slipping her hand under her mother's arm, she raised her to her feet, and in a firm, decided voice, quite as a hospital nurse would speak to a restless patient, she said:
“You'd better not sit up any longer, Mother dear. Come, I'll help put you to bed.”
There was no resistance. Whatever suddenly aroused memory had stirred the outburst, the paroxysm was over now.
“Well, maybe I am tired, child,” was all she said, and the two left the room.
“Poor, dear old Mother! Poor, tired old Mother!” the girl remarked to herself when she had resumed her place by the dying fire. “Wonder if I'll get that way when I'm as old as she is!”