my age. If they can get along, I suppose I can."

"Hush!" begged her mother quickly. "Don't speak of such a thing.
I couldn't bear to have you obliged to undertake your own support
in any such way.

"Both your father and I, honey, had the benefit of more than the
ordinary common-school education. I went three years to the
Tennessee Training College; I was prepared to teach when your
father and I met and married. He obtained an excellent training
for his business in a technical college. We hoped to give our
children, if we were blessed with them, an even better start in
life than we had.

"Had your little brother lived, honey," added Mrs. Sherwood
tenderly, "we should have tried to put him through college, and
you, as well. It would have been something worthwhile for your
father to work for. But I am afraid all these years that his
money has been wasted in attempts to benefit my health."

"Oh, Momsey! Don't say it, that way," urged Nan. "What would we
ever do without you? But I sometimes think how nice it would be
had I been a boy, my own brother, for instance. A boy can be so
much more help than a girl."

"For shame!" cried her mother, laughing. "Do you dare admit a
boy is smarter than a girl, Nan?"

"Not smarter. Only better able to do any kind of work, I guess.
They wouldn't let me work in the file shop, or drive a grocery