and she kept them excited--alarmed, perhaps; angry, oh yes; but never
bored.

And there were rewards in her service, too, for she could be as stormy
with affection as with mutiny. Sometimes she would attack Serina with
such gusts of gratitude or admiration that her mother would cry for
help. She would squeeze her father's ribs till he gasped for breath.
When she was pleased she would dance about the house like a whirling
maenad with ululations of ecstasy. These crises were sharp, but they left
a sweet taste in the memory.

So Prue had the best clothes and did the least work. Prue was sent off
to boarding-school in Chicago, though she had never been able to keep up
with her classes in Carthage; while Ollie--who took first prizes till
even the goody-goody boys hated her--stayed at home. She had dreamed of
being a teacher in the High, but she never mentioned it, and she studied
bookkeeping and stenography in the business college so that she could
help her father.

Prue had not been home long and had come home with bad grace. When her
father had found it impossible to borrow more money even to pay his
clerks, to say nothing of boarding-school bills, he had to write the
truth to Prue. He told her to come again to Carthage.

She did not come back at once and she refused to explain why. As a
matter of fact, she had desperately endeavored to find a permanent job
in Chicago. It was easy for so attractive a girl to get jobs, but it was
hard for so domineering a soul to keep one. She was regretfully bounced
out of three department stores in six days for "sassing" the customers
and the aisle-manager.

She even tried the theater. She was readily accepted by a stage-manager,
but when he found that he could not teach her the usual figures or
persuade her to keep in step or line with the rest he regretfully let
her go.

It was the regularity of it that stumped Prue. She could dance like a
ballerina by herself, but she could not count "one-two-three-four" twice
in succession. The second time it was "o-o-one-t'threeee-f'r" and next
it would be "onety-thry-fo-o-our."

Prue hung about Chicago, getting herself into scrapes by her charm and
fighting her way out of them by her ferocious pride. Finally she went
hungry and came home. When she learned the extent of her father's
financial collapse she delivered tirades against the people of Carthage
and she sang him up as a genius. And then she sought escape from the
depression at home