ike Jase. He says he wishes
he could, but he don't know where the money's coming from."

"How much's it goin' to take?" asked Marthy heavily.

"Oh, piles." Billy Louise spoke airily to hide her pride in the
importance of the subject. "Fifty dollars, I guess. I've got to have
some new clothes, mommie says. I'd like a blue dress."

"And your paw can't raise fifty dollars?" Marthy's tone was plainly
belligerent.

"Got to pay interest," said Billy Louise importantly.

Marthy said not another word about debts or the duties of parents.
What she did was more to the point, however, for she hitched the mules
to a rattly old buckboard next day and drove over to the MacDonald
ranch on the Wolverine. She carried fifty dollars in her pocket--and
that was practically all the money Marthy possessed, and had been saved
for the debts that harassed her. She gave the money to Billy Louise's
mother and said that it was a present for Billy Louise, and meant for
"school money." She said that she hadn't any girl of her own to spend
the money on, and that Billy Louise was a good girl and a smart girl,
and she wanted to do a little something toward her schooling.

A woman will sacrifice more pride than you would believe, if she sees a
way toward helping her children to an education. Mrs. MacDonald took
the money, and she promised secrecy--with a feeling of relief that
Marthy wished it. She was astonished to find that Marthy had any
feelings not directly connected with work or the shortcomings of Jase,
but she never suspected that Marthy had made any sacrifice for Billy
Louise.

So Billy Louise went away to school and never knew whose money had made
it possible to go, and Marthy worked harder and drove Jase more
relentlessly to make up that fifty dollars. She never mentioned the
matter to anyone. The next year it was the same; when, in August, she
questioned Billy Louise clumsily upon the subject of finances, and
learned that "daddy" still talked about debts and interest and didn't
know where the money was coming from, she drove over again with money
for the "schooling." And again she extracted a promise of silence.

She did this for four years, and not a soul knew that it cost her
anything in the way of extra work and extra harassment of mind. She
bought more cattle and cut more hay and went deeper into debt; for as
Billy Louise grew older and prettier and more accustomed to the ways of
town, she needed more money, and t