“Don’t be silly,” answered Harry, leading the way up to his room. “Who ever studies with exams two months and more away? Take the Morris chair and make yourself ‘ter hum.’ Now, then, unburden your mind. But let me tell you before you start that I’m dead broke. If you are thinking of hiring any more nurses, old son, you mustn’t ask me. And that reminds me that I haven’t collected all that money yet; there are three fellows still owing me. What you ought to do, Hansel, is to start a hospital.”
“It isn’t a nurse this time,” answered the other, “but it’s Mrs. Freer again.”
“The dickens it is! What are you going to do now? Buy her a new silk dress or send her to Europe?”
“Well, you quit being funny and I’ll tell you.”
“Oh, I’m not funny; I can’t be; I try awfully hard, but I can’t make it.”
“Well, stop trying then. And listen here, Harry. You know how Phin and his mother are fixed; they have mighty little money; she’s been trying to make some sort of a living by doing sewing and dressmaking, but Phin says she hasn’t found much to do. I suppose that’s only natural in a town like this. I guess most of the women do their own dressmaking, eh?”
“Can’t say for sure,” answered Harry with a broad smile, “but judging by some of the dresses you see, I dare say you’re right.”
“Well, anyway, they’re having a hard pull of it. You know how Phin works; he gets up before it’s light and he works until long after it’s dark, and I don’t suppose he makes very much, either. It’s a shame!”
“Sure it is! But we can’t support them, Hansel. I like Phin as much as you do, and I’ve got a lot of respect for that mother of his; she’s a dandy sort of a mother to have; but—well, what the dickens can we do?”
“Help them,” answered Hansel promptly.