As they told each other in after years, Ethel and Percy Landreth each noted a change in the other; both had grown in stature, she nearing beautiful womanhood, he thought, while the impression she gained of him, in the few minutes of their brief interview, was that he was becoming a noble-looking man, one of whom his parents, sisters, and other relatives might well feel proud; and she rejoiced for him and them, that he had escaped wounds and imprisonment in any one of those earthly hells—Andersonville, Libby, Belleisle, Danville, Charleston, Salisbury—and other notorious rebel prison-pens.
They were all eager for home and could not be persuaded to miss the first train that would carry them on their westward way; therefore the interview was brief.
Mr. and Mrs. Keith returned to their home by a train that left only a few minutes later, and Ethel, after a short but very joyful interview with her returned soldier cousins, went back to her work at the store.
She found the Baker family rejoicing over their returned soldier with joy too deep, on the part of the older ones, for anything but tears.
Mr. Baker proved a pleasant-tempered, kindly-mannered man, and in no way interfered with Ethel’s comfort as a member of the family. He was a mechanic, and in a few days was working busily at his trade again, while his wife, with Ethel’s assistance, still carried on her business.
Thus a year passed away during which Ethel gained in stature, in self-reliance, and knowledge of the work by which she hoped one day to support herself, and her brother and sisters. Her day-dreams were constantly of the little home she longed and hoped to provide for them and herself.
Her friend Carry Brown had similar aspirations, and finally they decided to go into business together. Their means were not large, but their plan was to buy goods in small quantities and on short credit, paying for them partly by sales, partly by doing a good deal of machine-sewing; Ethel also to continue her fine needlework as time and opportunity were afforded.
They found a suitable place only a few squares distant from Mrs. Baker’s, a small house with one room back of the store, which they decided should be their parlor, three bedrooms in the second story with an attic over them, a basement kitchen, a cellar, and a small dining room.
The house was in pretty good repair. They rented it, freshened the appearance of the rooms with some cheap but delicately tinted paper on the walls, putting it on themselves to save expense, bought a scant supply of cheap, second-hand furniture, oilcloths and carpets for the floors, and the necessary utensils for the kitchen and dining room. The house and its furnishings were indeed small and mean in comparison with those of Ethel’s uncles, yet she, her friend, brother, and sisters took very joyful possession of it one summer afternoon, feeling that at last they had a home of their own, and the next morning the store was open for customers.
Blanche, now in her sixteenth year, undertook the housekeeping under her older sister’s direction and superintendence. They would decide the night before what they might spend on their three meals and what they wanted that would come within their means, and the next morning would make the purchases. Blanche liked doing the marketing, and she soon learned to economize and to prepare dainty little dishes at small expense, developing quite a talent for cookery.