NAN FOUND CATHY FILLING A FIREPLACE WITH GOLDEN-ROD. ([SEE NEXT PAGE].)
"What! study more?" groaned Lou, who was only fourteen, and in the toils of cube-root.
"Yes, study more," asserted Nan. "I want to take a course of lessons in a school of design, for I think I may do something in that line that may pay, after a while. Now, observe the latent beauty of my scheme. By spending the winter with them, I shan't need any new clothes—which means that I intend to pay for my lessons out of my own allowance."
"Oh, never mind that, dear child," Mr. Ferris said lovingly.
"Yes, I will mind! That is just what makes us girls so good-for-nothing;—we don't 'mind' enough! I really think it would be fun to actually need a new dress and know I couldn't have it until I earned it—buttons, whale-bones, and braid. Anyhow, if it were not fun, it would be good for my character. Now what do you all think?" and Nan helped herself to cake, observing that the others had finished theirs.
Mr. Ferris, heaving an involuntary sigh, began:
"Well, dear, as you know, your mother and I consider it our duty to bring up our girls so that each can, if the necessity should come, earn her own living; and perhaps the time is here for one to fly out of the nest to try her wings,—ah, me!"
"But that is just what I don't want to do; and one reason I hit upon this plan is that it will take me away from home only one winter, perhaps, and then not among strangers," said Nan.
"But," objected Mr. Ferris, "do you know anything about this school?"