ce of an education, and
this to her was a very bitter sacrifice.

One night, when everyone else was asleep, even Aunt Kate, Pearl
fought it all out. Every day was bringing fresh evidences of the evil
effects of idleness on the boys. Jimmy brought home a set of
"Nations" and offered to show her how to play pedro with them. Teddy
was playing on the hockey team, and they were in Brandon that night,
staying at a hotel, right within "smell of the liquor," Pearl
thought. The McSorley boys had stolen money from the restaurant man,
and Pearl had overheard Tommy telling Bugsey that Ben McSorley was a
big fool to go showing it, and Pearl thought she saw from this how
Tommy's thoughts were running.

All these things smote Pearl's conscience and seemed to call on her
to renounce her education to save the family. "Small good your
learnin' 'll be to ye, Pearl Watson, if yer brothers are behind the
bars," she told herself bitterly. "It's not so fine ye'll look, all
dressed up, off to a teachers' convention in Brandon, readin' a paper
on 'How to teach morals,' and yer own brother Tommy, or maybe Patsey,
doin' time in the Brandon jail! How would ye like, Pearlie, to have
some one tap ye on the shoulder and say, 'Excuse me for troublin' of
ye, Miss Watson, but it's visitor's day at the jail, and yer brother
Thomas would like ye to be after stepping, over. He's a bit lonesome.
He's Number 23!'"

Something caught in her throat, and her eyes were too full to be
comfortable. She slipped out of bed and quietly knelt on the bare
floor. "Dear God," she prayed, "ye needn't say another word. I'll go,
so I will. It's an awful thing to be ignorant, but it's nothin' like
as bad as bein' wicked. No matter how ignorant ye are ye can still
look up and ask God to bless ye, but if ye are wicked ye're re dead
out of it altogether, so ye are; so I'll go ignorant, dear Lord, to
the end o' my days, though ye know yerself what that is like to me,
an I'll try never to be feelin' sorry or wishin' myself back. Just
let me get the lads brought up right. Didn't ye promise someone the
heathen for their inheritance? Well, all right, give the heathen to
that one, whoever it was ye promised it to, but give me the
lads--there's seven of them, ye mind. I guess that's all. Amen."

The next day Pearl went to school as usual, determined to make the
best use of the short time that remained before the spring opened.
All day long the path of knowledge seemed very sweet a