“No, no! I must not borrow it; I must earn it. Is there no light work in your nursery I could do at once?”
She smiled. “All people look for light work. That iss—skilled work. Mine leetle plants, like tender child, must be very gently touched, ant mit love. If you like I’ll teach you.”
“Thank you. But if you have the trouble of teaching me it will be some time before I shall be worth wages. I’ll think about it.” He turned away still perplexed, knowing she saw it.
But whatever she thought, she encouraged him cordially. “We’ll talk no more of this ever, till you yourself ask me. Now you have one thing to do, make friends mit health. Then I think iss time to make money.”
He thanked her again and was silent for a time, appearing to read; but when he and Sydney were alone Max divulged his immediate need for money. “I’ve got to pay something I owe—just got to.”
Sydney hesitated, trying to see with the other boy’s eyes. “I know how you feel. All the time I was rustling papers—on my uppers most of the time—I had to keep thinking of my father’s rule of life, ‘No Bremmer ever takes something for nothing.’”
“I should say that was a mighty good rule.”
“Yes, but a mighty hard one sometimes. If it hadn’t been for that I guess I’d have gone bad more’n I did. Anyway I’ve slept hungry many a night because of it.”