k, even if I make him do
without, so I will. I am well, and so is Aunt Louisa, and any boy
that lives with her has to toe the mark, I tell you; but she is
good and has fine things to eat every meal. What did Sue get for
her birthday? I got a book from father and one from Aunt Louisa and
the one from you that you told her to buy. It is queer that people
will give a boy books when he has only one knife, and that a broken
one. There's a book prize to be given at the school, and I am
pretty afraid I will get that, too; it would be just my luck.
Teachers think about nothing but books and what good they do, but I
heard of a boy that had a grand knife with five sharp blades and a
corkscrew, and in a shipwreck he cut all the ropes, so the sail
came down that was carrying them on to the rocks, and then by
boring a hole with his corkscrew all the water leaked out of the
ship that had been threatening to sink the sailors. I could use a
little pocket money, as Aunt Louisa keeps me short.... I have been
spending Sunday with father, and had a pretty good time, not so
very. Father will take me about more when he stops going to the
store, which will be next week for good. The kitchen floor is new
painted, and Ellen says it sticks, and Aunt Louisa is going to make
Ellen clean house in case you come home. Do you like where you are?
Our teacher told the girls' teacher it seemed a long stay for any
one who had a family, and the boys at school call me a half orphan
and say my mother has left me and so my father has to board me in
the country. My money is run out again. I sat down in a puddle this
afternoon, but it dried up pretty quick and didn't hurt my clothes,
so no more from your son

JACK.

This was the sort of message that had been coming to Susanna of late,
bringing up little pictures of home duties and responsibilities, homely
tasks and trials. "John giving up the store for good"; what did that
mean? Had he gone from bad to worse in the solitude that she had hoped
might show him the gravity of his offenses, the error of his ways? In
case she should die, what then would become of the children? Would
Louisa accept the burden of Jack, for whom she had never cared? Would
the Shakers take Sue? She would be safe; perhaps she would always be
happy; but brother and sister would be divided and brought up as