"I can't pay this! At the rate at which bills come in nowadays, I soon will not have a cent left in the world. It is enough to bankrupt a man!"
At bedtime that night the little daughter asked her mother, with the indifferent air children so soon learn to assume:
"Mamma, what becomes of people when all their money is gone, and they can't pay their bills?"
"Sometimes, dear," answered the unsuspicious mother, "their houses and belongings are sold to pay their bills."
"And when people have no house, and no money, and nothing left, where do they go? Do they starve to death?"
"They generally go to the poorhouse, my daughter."
"Oh, mamma!" quavered the little voice, "don't you think that is dreadful?"
"Very dreadful, darling! Now go to sleep."
To sleep! How could she, with the grim doors of the home for the county paupers yawning blackly to receive her? All through the night was the horror upon her, and to this day she remembers the sickening thrill that swept over her while playing with a little friend, when the thought occurred:
"If this girl's mother knew that we were going to the poorhouse, she would not let her play with me."