Amarilly's pace in learning English from Derry during the following
winter was only excelled by her proficiency in mathematics. "Figgerin'"
the Boarder declared to be his long suit, and his young pupil worked
every example in Flamingus's arithmetic, and employed her leisure
moments in solving imaginary problems. Then came an evening when she put
her knowledge to practical use and application. She had been working
absorbedly with pencil and paper for some time when she looked up from
her sheet of figures with a flushed race and a Q.E.D. written in each
shining eye.
"Say!" she announced to the family who were gathered about the long
table.
Instantly they were all attention, for they always looked to Amarilly
for something startling in the way of bulletins.
"I've been setting down and adding up what we all bring in each week.
Ma's washings, the Boarder's board, my studio work, Flamingus' and
Milt's wages, Gus's cow, Bud's singing, Co's dish-washing, and Bobby's
papers. What do you suppose it all amounts to?"
She allowed a few seconds of tragic silence to ensue before she gave the
electrifying total.
"Land sakes! Who'd 'a thought it!" exclaimed Mrs. Jenkins.
"We'd orter hev ice-cream and pie every day," reproached Cory.
"It would be reckoned a purty big salary if one man got it all,"
speculated the Boarder.
"We are rich!" exclaimed Bobby decisively.
"I'll tell you what we'll do," pursued Amarilly. "We must start a
syndicate."
"What's that, a show?" demanded Flamingus.
"No; I heard the artists down to the studio talking about it, and Mr.
Derry explained it. He said when a lot of folks put their cash on hand
together in one pile, they can buy something big and do more than as if
they spent it separate."
"Well, I ain't a goin' to put my money in with Co's," said Milt
sarcastically. "Wouldn't be much profit for me in that."
"You don't catch on," replied Amarilly. "If you should put in one
dollar, and Co should put in ten cents, at the end of a certain time,
you'd draw out ten dollars and Co would only draw out one. See?"
"I do," said the practical Gus.
"Well, now let's put our money into something and all own it together,
each one's share according to what we put in. Let's buy this house!"
They all stared in amazement.
"Buy a house! You are sure crazy, Amarilly!" exclaimed Milt.
"We could buy it cheap," continued Amarilly unabashed. "I heard the
grocer saying yesterday that property around here was at a low figure
now. We could put our savings together and make a payment down, and
instead of paying rent let it go on the balance each month. Before we
knew it we'd own the house, and the deed could be made out to show how
much of it each one owned."
"I choose the pantry!" cried Cory.
"I guess if you could buy a window-pane with what you've got, you'd do
well," observed Milt in a withering tone.
"That's a splendid idee, Amarilly!" declared the Boarder
enthusiastically. "I don't know what better investment you could make."
"It would be fine," sighed Mrs. Jenkins, "to own your own place and feel
that no one could turn you out."
"You've got a great head, Amarilly," complimented Gus.
"We could borrow on the house if we ever got hard up, or the fever
struck us again," said Flamingus.
"Well," proposed Amarilly, the ever-ready, "let's get right at it. I'll
set down our names, and when I call the roll, tell me how much you've
saved and will put in the house."
There was a general rush for bank-books, for ever since the preceding
fall, the six oldest children had paid their board, clothed themselves,
and saved the balance of their earnings.
From her washings, the revenue from the board of the children and
Boarder, Mrs. Jenkins had paid the rent and the household expenses. By
thrifty management she had also acquired a bank account herself.
"Ma!" called Amarilly expectantly.
There had been much urging on the part of
Deny in his zeal for language reform to induce his young pupil to say
"mother," but in this sole instance Amarilly had refused to take his
will for law.
"She's always been 'ma' to me, and she always will be," declared
Amarilly emphatically. "If I were to call her anything else I'd feel as
if I had lost her--as if she didn't belong to me."
Ma triumphantly announced: "Forty-seven dollars and fifty-one cents."
"A fine starter," commended Amarilly, "Flamingus?"
"Forty dollars," he announced with pride.
"Milt?" Amarilly called his name in faint voice. He was the only tight-
tendencied member of the household, and she feared he might decline to
give. But Milt was envious and emulative.
"Forty-two dollars and sixty-nine cents," he declared in a voice
rendered triumphant by the fact of his having beaten Flam.
Amarilly drew a sigh of relief.
"It's going to add up fine, now. Guess I'll take my own account next. I
haven't got as much as you boys, though." "Shouldn't think you would
have," said Gus sympathizingly. "You don't earn so much, and yet you pay
ma as much, and don't take out nuthin' fer your noon meal. And you give
Co things."
"I've earned quite a bit," replied Amarilly cheerfully. "Besides what
Mr. Derry gives me, there's what I've had from odd jobs like letting the
artists paint my hair, and taking care of Mrs. Wick's baby afternoons
when she goes to card parties. I've got thirty dollars to put in. Gus?"
"Thirty-five dollars," he replied in a pleased tone.
"Bud?"
They all looked expectantly. Bud received ten dollars each Sunday now,
and he had been singing at concerts, organ recitals, and entertainments
all winter. On account of these latter engagements, he had been obliged
to expend a considerable amount in clothes suitable to the occasion.
When Bud donned his "evening clothes," which consisted of black silk
hose, patent leather pumps, black velvet suit with Irish crochet collar
and cuffs, purchased under the direction of Mr. Derry, Amarilly always
felt uncomfortable.
"Don't seem fair to Bobby when they're so near twins," she thought.
One day, however, she overheard Bud sweetly offer to buy his near half a
similar outfit. Amarilly listened eagerly for Bobby's answer which
brought a sigh of relief.
"I wouldn't wear one of them rigs on a bet," he had scoffingly answered.
"One hundred and twenty-five dollars," Bud now replied modestly.
"Gee! you take the cake!" said Bobby.
Amarilly was sorry that she had to call Bobby's name next. But Bobby had
a surprise in store for them all.
"Forty-eight dollars!" he cried gleefully, giving Flam, Milt and Gus
exultant glances, "Beat the hull of ye, except Bud!"
"How in the world did you ever do it on paper routes?" asked Amarilly
wonderingly.
Bobby winked at his mother.
"Shall we tell our secret?" he asked. "You tell, Ma."
"You see," she explained, "when the clo'es are bilin' arter you hev all
gone to work and to school, I've made twenty little pies and when Bobby
got out of school, he'd come hum and git 'em and take 'em up to the High
School. The girls bought 'em at five cents apiece. The stuff to make 'em
cost about two cents a pie."
"And Bobby got all the profit!" expostulated Milt indignantly.
"Bobby paid me by taking the clo'es offen the line and bringin' them in
every night, and fetchin' the water," she replied chidingly. "We was
goin' to keep it a secret till he got enough to buy a pony."
"But I'd ruther buy a house," said Bobby.
"I ain't got enough to come in no snidikit," sobbed Co. "I ain't saved
much."
"That's because you spend all you earn on candy," rebuked Milt.
"I ain't nuther. I bought me some rubbers and Iry some playthings."
"How much have you got, Co?" asked Amarilly gently.
"Two dollars and ninety-seven cents," she said, weeping profusely.
"I think that's pretty good for a little girl," said Amarilly. "All you
strapping boys ought to chip in out of your cash on hand what isn't in
the bank and give her some so she could be in on it. Here is fifty cents
from me, Co."
"I'll give you fifty, Co," said her mother.
"Me, too," said Flamingus.
The other boys followed with equal contributions, Bud generously
donating a five-dollar bill he had received that day for a solo at a
musicale given by Miss Lyte.
"Here's fifty cents from me," said the Boarder, who had remained very
thoughtful during this transaction.
"Eleven dollars and forty-seven cents for Co," announced Amarilly.
The little girl's eyes shone through her tears.
"Seems too bad that Iry is the only one left out," said Mrs. Jenkins.
"When he gits old enough to work, he can come in," said Milt. "Add her
up, Amarilly."
"Three hundred and sixty-nine dollars and sixty-seven cents!" almost
screamed Amarilly.
"Gee!" chorused the boys.
"Purty near buy the old shack," said Flamingus.
"Our landlord," said Amarilly sagaciously, "is a shark, and he'll try to
get the best of us. I am going to get Mr. Vedder to do the business for
us, and he'll get the deed in all our names."
"Put in Iry's too," pleaded Mrs. Jenkins solicitous for her Benjamin.
"I'll put it to vote," said parliamentary Amarilly. "Who's for Iry?"
"Me, me, me," came from all, though Milt's response was reluctant.
"I will see Mr. Vedder to-morrow, so we can begin to let the rent apply
right off," said Amarilly.
"We'll take more pride in keeping it fixed up now," remarked Flamingus.
"I'll mend the windowpanes and the door hinges."
"And I'll build some stairs and put up a partition or two," promised the
Boarder.
"I'll paint it," said Gus, proud of his former work in this direction.
Amarilly secretly resolved to select the color.
"I'll make curtains and rag rugs and sofa pillows," she observed.
"And I'll buy some cheers and a hangin' lamp," said Mrs. Jenkins. "Don't
all this talk make you want to housekeep?" she asked with a knowing
glance in the Boarder's direction.
He shook his head thoughtfully, but when the boys and Cory had gone to
bed, he unfolded a proposition that he had been evolving during their
financial discussion, and which now found overwhelming favor and
enthusiasm with his hearers.
The next day Amarilly called upon Mr. Vedder at the theatre.
"He's got more sound business to him than Mr. Derry or Mr. St. John,"
she shrewdly decided.
"When she told him her plan and showed him her figures, he most heartily
approved.
"The house, of course, isn't worth anything," he said, "but land down
that way is a good investment. Who is your, landlord?"
She gave him the name and address.
"I am glad you came to me, Amarilly, instead of to your newer friends."
"Oh, you know more about it than they do," she replied, "and besides,
some way I wouldn't feel as if I were bothering you."
"Not a bit of bother, Amarilly, and I hope you will always feel that
way."
The ticket-seller was prompt, thorough, and shrewd in the matter. He had
a friend in the real estate business, who appraised the property for
him, and he proved most diplomatic in his dealing with the surprised
landlord, who fortunately chanced to be in dire need of some ready cash.
In an incredibly short space of time the bargain was closed.
The Jenkins family including the Boarder and Iry left the house one
noon, each bearing a red bank-book. To the onlookers in the
neighborhood, this Armada was all-impressive.
"Looks like a run on the bank," said the Boarder facetiously, as they
all trooped up the steps to the big stone building.
The payment was made, and the deeds drawn in the names of all the
family, but to the list was also added the name of the Boarder.