“Yes, but that doesn’t seem like making money. If only we could keep Sarah for Mother—’cause Sarah understands all about her, and she’s as good as a nurse if she’s ill. I wouldn’t care how hard we worked, if only we could keep Sarah. But it’s no use wishing. No one is much good when they aren’t even sixteen yet,” finished Jo, with an utter lack of grammar and a woe-begone expression.
“No—as far as making money goes, you can’t expect to be marvels,” Ellen agreed. “But do remember that you’re helping when you save, because that will help you yourselves—ever so much.”
“You’re going to help in dozens of ways, and most of all by bucking them up,” said Helen firmly. “No worries can be half so bad with you cheery twinses about. You’ve just got to go home and be Knights of the Cheerful Countenance, and that’s something a long way better than money. And don’t forget that bad times don’t last for ever—especially if you make up your mind not to regard them as bad. Now, just uncurl yourselves from those sofa-ends and go off to bed, or Miss Dampier will ask if I’ve already ceased to be Captain!”
“The twins loved their window-seat, and generally read their home-letters in it.”
The Twins of Emu Plains] [Page 43
CHAPTER V
HELEN HAS AN IDEA
‟TWINSES, are you awake?”
“Yes,” said Jean and Jo, together.
They had awakened early, and had lain for an hour discussing their father’s news, and trying to face all that it meant for them. Last night had been a kind of whirl, in which it was difficult to realize anything; but in the quiet of the summer morning it was easier to look steadily at the future. They had re-read Mr. Weston’s letter, with a fresh rush of pity for the pain that lay between its lines. Dimly they realized what it had cost him to write it. It made them ache to make things easier for him.
Helen’s voice broke across a wild vision on the part of Jo, in which she had just discovered a gold-mine in one of the back paddocks, and had so put an end for ever to financial shortage. Jean was as thrilled as she over this dazzling prospect, and they both started violently at the interruption.