Mollie's Suggestion
The trouble with Betty Ashton's foot was only a sprained ankle but it
kept her confined for several days and gave her plenty of time for
reflection. She must of course pay her debts, for she could not make up
her mind to send back the things she had ordered (self-denial and Betty
had very slight acquaintance with one another), and besides the
disappointment would not be hers alone but all of the Sunrise Camp Fire
girls.
For the truth is that Betty and Polly together had written a Camp Fire
play setting forth some of the ideals of their organization and they
wished to give the entertainment during Christmas week in the most
beautiful possible fashion. Of course in the beginning they had assured
Miss McMurtry, who was still a kind of advisory guardian, and Miss Dyer,
that everything would be very simple and inexpensive, but naturally their
ambitions grew with each passing day, and with scenery and costumes to be
bought, besides the gifts and decorations for the Camp Fire tree, Betty
found herself very much involved. As usual she was bearing the greater
share of the expenses and then, though no one outside the Camp Fire club
except Dick Ashton knew of it, Betty had been giving a part of her
allowance each week so that Esther Clark might have singing lessons with
the best possible teacher in Woodford. Not that the relation between
Betty and Esther had seriously changed. The older girl still felt toward
Betty the same adoring and self-sacrificing devotion, still considered
her the most beautiful and charming person in the world and that her
careless generosity lifted her above every one else, while, though to do
Betty Ashton credit, she was entirely unconscious of it, her attitude
toward Esther was just the least little bit condescending. Esther was so
plain and awkward and particularly she lacked the birth and breeding
Betty considered so essential, but then she was fond of her and did want
Esther to have her chance--this chance she felt must lie in the
cultivation of her beautiful voice.
So that when Betty, unable to make up her mind what had best be done,
determined to consult with the girls, it was to her old friends, Mollie
and Polly O'Neill, that she turned rather than to Esther. She had been
unusually quiet one evening, although insisting that her ankle was
entirely well. Suddenly, however, she plead fatigue and with a little
gesture, which both girls understood as a signal, asked that Mollie and
Polly come and help her get ready for bed.
When Betty was finally undressed, she sat bolt upright in her cot with
her cheeks flushed and her gray eyes shining. So unusually pretty did she
appear that Polly, who never ceased to admire her, even when she happened
to be angry, set a silver paper crown upon her head. The crown was a part
of their Christmas stage property and not intended for Betty, but now
Polly stood a few feet away and clasped her hands together from sheer
admiration, while Mollie, who was usually undemonstrative, leaned over
and kissed her friend's cheek before settling herself at the foot of the
bed.
"You certainly are lovely, Princess, and so is Mollie for that matter,"
Polly exclaimed, generously seating herself opposite her sister. Betty
happened to be wearing a heavy blue silk dressing jacket over her gown
and her auburn hair hung in two heavy braids, one over each shoulder. Her
forehead was low and she had delicate level brows. But just now Betty
flushed scarlet and frowned, for whatever her other faults she was not
vain.
"Please don't call me Princess, Polly, dear," she urged, taking off her
paper crown and surveying it rather ruefully, "because I am in truth only
a paper princess to-night. You have told me a hundred times, Polly,
child, that you thought I ought to know the sensation of being poor like
other people, that I needed it for my education. Well, I do at last, for
I have bought a lot of things for Christmas that I can't pay for, as
mother writes she can't let me have any extra money."
Betty's expression, however, was not half so serious as that of her two
friends as she made this confession. For the girls had also heard the
rumor which had troubled Rose Dyer in regard to Mr. Ashton's possible
change of fortune, and knew that Betty did not in the least understand
the gravity of her mother's refusal.
Polly positively shivered. Betty poor! It was impossible to imagine! Yet
what, after all, did the supposed loss of a few thousand dollars mean to
a man of Mr. Ashton's wealth.
Polly patted Betty's hand sympathetically. "Debt is the most horrible
thing in the world, isn't it? I haven't forgotten how I felt when I was
in your debt last summer, Betty, and took such a horrid way to get out of
it."
"Maybe you had better send back what you have bought," suggested the more
practical Mollie, making the same suggestion as their guardian.
But at this Betty and Polly glanced at one another despairingly. "Give up
making their Camp Fire play a success?" For this is what it would mean
should Betty have to send back her purchases!
"How much do you owe, dear?" Polly next inquired in a crushed voice.
And at this Betty drew the same sheets of complex figures out from under
her pillow. "It is a hundred and fifty dollars, I can't make it any
less," she confessed. "That sounds pretty dreadful doesn't it, when you
have not a single cent to pay with, though I never thought one hundred
and fifty dollars so very much before. Of course I could save something
out of my allowance every month, but not very much, and father would not
like me to ask people to wait."
"Can't you give up something besides the Christmas present from your
mother which you were _not_ going to have?" Mollie inquired so seriously
and with such a horrified expression over the amount of her friend's
indebtedness, and such an entire disregard for the Irishness of her
speech, that both the other girls laughed in spite of their worry.
Mollie's pretty face showed no answering smiles in return, nor did she
take the least interest in the reason for their laughter. For it was not
her way to be interrupted by their perfectly idle merriment.
"But haven't you, Betty?" she repeated.
And Betty leaned her chin on her hands. "I have my piano," she replied
slowly, "but I can't sell that because then Esther would have no chance
to practice, and we could never half enjoy our Camp Fire songs without."
Both the other girls shook their heads. Giving up the piano _was_ out of
the question.
For a moment longer there was silence and then Betty's cheeks flushed
again. "I have got some things I suppose I can part with, though I rather
hate to," she confessed. "I don't know whether mother and father would
like it, but then they would not like my being in debt. In a safety box
in the bank in town I have some jewelry I never wear because mother
thinks it too handsome for a girl of my age. Father and Dick have given
it to me at different times. I suppose somebody would tell me how to
dispose of at least a part of it."
And although both Polly and Mollie at first strenuously objected to
Betty's suggestion, it was finally decided that Betty and Polly should
drive into Woodford on the following Saturday morning without saying
anything to any one else and bring the safety box back with them. Then
they could talk the matter over and find out what Betty could dispose of
with the least regret. Her ankle was now well enough for her to make the
trip in their sleigh without difficulty.