"I'm at the end of my string," Mrs. Mullarkey's discouraged voice continued. "I've never been able to make both ends meet since Dan died."
"She couldn't make them meet so's to give us money to buy tickets to the circus," Jerry explained corroboratively to his father.
"You'll have to come to it eventually, Mrs. Mullarkey," warned the County Overseer. "This is a good chance for Celia Jane. The Thompsons are well fixed; they'll give her a fine home and a good education."
Celia Jane at that sat down on the floor and let her body relax into a limp bundle.
"I won't go!" she sobbed. "I won't leave mother! What would I do without mother?"
Jerry was very much distressed at Celia Jane's misery and he looked pleadingly up at his clown-father; that extraordinary man knew without a word having been spoken that Jerry expected him to fix things so that Celia Jane could stay with her mother. Whiteface spoke at once.
"Don't cry, Celia Jane. Nobody is going to take you away. Both ends are going to meet now. You're all going to stay here with your mother."
"You talk big," grumbled Mr. Darner. "Now to come down to brass tacks. Who's—"
"As long as I have any money, Mr. County Overseer," said Whiteface, "or as long as I have the power to make any, the Mullarkey household will not be broken up."
"Of course it won't, Robert," chimed in Jerry's mother in a crisp voice, as she raised Celia Jane from the floor and comforted her. "You always know just what to do."