each year for the family clothing. The child had always really
preferred that the others should have "new things" rather than
herself--until Miss Margaret came; and now, before Miss Margaret's
daintiness, she felt ashamed of her own shabby appearance and
longed unspeakably for fresh, pretty clothes. Tillie knew
perfectly well that her father had plenty of money to buy them for
her if he would. But she never thought of asking him or her
stepmother for anything more than what they saw fit to give her.

The Getz family was a perfectly familiar type among the German
farming class of southeastern Pennsylvania. Jacob Getz, though
spoken of in tha neighborhood as being "wonderful near," which
means very penurious, and considered by the more gentle-minded
Amish and Mennonites of the township to be "overly strict" with
his family and "too ready with the strap still," was nevertheless
highly respected as one who worked hard and was prosperous, lived
economically, honestly, and in the fear of the Lord, and was
"laying by."

The Getz farm was typical of the better sort to be found in that
county. A neat walk, bordered by clam shells, led from a wooden
gate to the porch of a rather large, and severely plain frame
house, facing the road. Every shutter on the front and sides of
the building was tightly closed, and there was no sign of life
about the place. A stranger, ignorant of the Pennsylvania Dutch
custom of living in the kitchen and shutting off the "best
rooms,"--to be used in their mustiness and stiff unhomelikeness on
Sunday only,--would have thought the house temporarily empty. It
was forbiddingly and uncompromisingly spick-and-span.