"Before God I will; and I'll tell you all," said Mattie.
CHAPTER XXVIII
MATTIE'S STORY
"My father is a good man. He is kind, hard-working, and gives all of his wages to Mother. Mother has an idea that I am above my associates. She is ambitious for me to go with the rich girls—the girls who have position."
Ethel's heart bounded. Was not her own mother the same?
"I worked in McAllister's store. I earned six dollars a week. Three of it I paid Mother for board. The other three, with what Father gave me, bought my clothes; but even with that I could not dress well enough to go with the girls as she wished me to.
"Her idea was for me to go to church and Sunday School and meet them that way. Then poor little Mollie was knocked down by an automobile and she has never left her bed. They were a party of joy riders, and oh! I hate to confess it, but I've promised—my mother was one of them. She had a cousin who was a chauffeur and he asked her to go. No one but I knew that she was of the party, for they were so drunk they never saw that she left them, and to this day no one knows that it was her cousin's auto that knocked Mollie down, for he escaped. Mother came home after Mollie had been taken to the hospital, and at that time we all thought that she had been out spending the evening. When she found that Mollie was injured for life she began to take morphine. I alone know her secret; she never knew that she told it. For God's sake don't betray me. Every-penny that Father gave her she spent for that drug, and he thinking that Mollie had the benefit of it.
"At last I couldn't stand it. I couldn't see my little sister die for the want of proper food, nor could I tell Father, and give my own mother away, for outside of her ambition for me she had been a good mother. Then Father grew ill and was laid up with rheumatism. I refused to give Mother the three dollars for board, but I kept it for expenses. When she demanded, I told her what I knew and threatened to expose her.
"Father grew better and was able to work again, but poor Mollie failed daily. I laid awake night after night. I prayed—for I was a good girl once—for a way to be shown me whereby I could make more than six dollars a week.
"Then in Sunday School I met Miss Hollister. I had heard of these Camp Fire Girls and how many fine things a girl could learn, so that in time she could earn good money. I consulted with Father and he advised me to join; and Mother was delighted, for she saw visions of my being intimate with the 'swell' girls."