four o'clock mornings, sweeping down the stairs, and late nights, making
shirtwaists for Mrs. Snyder, to help supply what's lacking."

"Just you wait till I see that Cora," observed Mrs. Slawson
irrelevantly. "That's the time _her_ past will have slopped over on her
present, so's she can't tell which is which. Just you wait till I see
that Cora!"

"No, no--_please_! Martha _dear_! It wasn't Cora! She's not to blame.
I'd have known sooner or later anyway. I always reason things out for
myself. Please promise not to scold Cora."

"Scold Cora? Not on your life, my dear; I won't scold Cora. I'm
old-fashioned in my ways with childern. I don't believe in scoldin'. It
spoils their tempers, but a good _lickin'_ oncet in a while, helps 'em
to remember, besides bein' good for the circulation."

Claire was ready to cry. "It's all my fault," she lamented. "I was
clumsy. I was tactless. And now Cora will be punished for it, and--I
make nothing but trouble for you all."

"There, there! For mercy sake, don't take on like that. I promise I'll
let Cora go free, if you'll sit back quiet an' eat your dinner in peace.
So now! That's better!"

"What I was going to say, Martha dear, is, I'm quite well and strong
now, and I want to set about immediately looking for something to do. I
ought to be able to support myself, you know, for I'm able-bodied, and
not so stupid but that I managed to graduate from college. Once, two
summers ago, I tutored--I taught a young girl who was studying to take