CHAPTER XIV
FINANCIAL PLANS
Dorothy felt it the most. As the oldest, she had the greatest sense ofresponsibility, and she felt that she ought in some way to amend thefamily fortunes, but just how she did not know. She well knew howdifficult it is for a girl to earn any money without being especiallytrained in some branch of usefulness; and she had often thought that shewould learn some one thing well, and so be prepared against a day ofmisfortune. And now the day of misfortune had come, and she was notready for it. She could not bear to think of selling the town house; shewould far rather sell the hotel, but that, it seemed, was out of thequestion.
Leicester, on the other hand, took a more cheerful view of thesituation.
"Oh, I don't believe we'll have to sell the house," he said. "It isn'tso bad as that, is it, grandma?"
"I don't know, Leicester," said the old lady helplessly; "I never didknow much about business matters, and now I feel more confused than everwhen I try to straighten them out."
"But if we could just get through this summer, grandmother, when we goback to the city in the fall I feel sure I can get a position of somekind and earn a salary that will help us all out."
"You are a good boy, Leicester," said Mrs. Dorrance; "but it is veryuncertain about your getting a position; and too, I don't want you toleave school yet."
"No, indeed," said Dorothy. "It wouldn't be right for Leicester to leaveschool at fourteen; and anyway, I think he ought to go through college.Now I am sixteen, and I have education enough for a girl. So I'm the oneto get a position of some kind in the fall, and earn money to helpalong."
"What could you do?" asked Lilian looking at her sister. She had amplefaith that Dorothy could do anything she wanted to, and was merelyanxious to know in which direction she would turn her talents.
"I don't know," said Dorothy, very honestly; "skilled labor is the onlything that counts nowadays, and I'm really not fitted for anything. Iwould like best to write things; but I don't believe anybody would buythem,--at least, not at first. So I suppose the only thing that I coulddo would be to go into a store."
"And sell candy?" asked Fairy, with a dawning interest in the plan.
"Don't talk like that, Dorothy dear," said grandma, gently; "of course Iwouldn't let you go into a store, and also, I'm very much afraid thatyour poetry wouldn't find a ready market. That may come later, but itwill probably be after years of apprenticeship."
"Well, something must be done," said Dorothy decidedly; "and you can'tdo it, grandma; so we children must. I think we are old enough now totake the responsibility off of your shoulders; or at least to help youin these troubles."
"I wish you could, my dear child, but I fear there is no practical wayby which we can raise the money that I must have, except to sell thecity house. It seems like a great sacrifice for a small reason; for yousee if we just had money enough to pay our living expenses this summer,I could manage, I think, to come out nearly even by fall. But there isno way to provide for our living this summer, that I can see."
"Now I'm getting a clearer understanding of the case," said Leicester;"then if we children could earn money enough this summer to run theDorrance Domain, we'd come out all right?"
"Yes, I think so, but how could you earn any?"
"I don't know," said Leicester, "but I've often read how other boysearned money,--and country boys, too. We might pick huckleberries andsell them, or we might raise a garden and sell things."
"Who would you sell them to?" asked Lilian, who was always practical."Now I think a more sensible way would be to economize. Send away Tessieand Kathleen both; and then get along with fewer good things to eat. Youknow we've had everything just as we wanted it, and I'm sure we couldcut down our table expenses. Then we could give up the horse,--althoughhe is a dear----"
At this Fairy's wails began again, for she was devotedly attached to oldDobbin, the horse, and couldn't bear to think of parting with him.
"I think," said Grandma Dorrance, "that we will have to ask Mr. Lloyd tocome up here and advise us; and then whatever he thinks best, we willdo."
"Don't you have to pay Mr. Lloyd for his advice?" asked Dorothy,suddenly struck by the thought of what seemed to her an unnecessaryexpense.
"Yes," said Mrs. Dorrance; "that is, I pay him for attending to all ofmy business, and of course that includes his advice."
"I suppose we couldn't get along without him," said Dorothy, sighing;"but it does seem awful to pay him money that we need so muchourselves."
Mrs. Dorrance had a happy faculty of deferring unpleasant things to somefuture time; and not worrying about them meanwhile.
"Well," she said, "I will write to Mr. Lloyd to-morrow, and ask him tocome up here; or if he can't come, to write me a letter advising me whatto do. And until he comes, or his letter comes, we can't do anything inthe matter, and there is no use worrying over it. I'd hate to dischargethe servants, for you girls couldn't get along without anybody to help;and if we keep Tessie, Kathleen is no added expense, for her work wellpays for her board."
This was not quite logical, but all were too miserable to notice it. Foronce the Dorrances went up-stairs to their beds without any whoops orhurrahs for Dorrance Domain.
As they were going up the great staircase, Lilian offered another of herpractical, if not very attractive suggestions.
"We could," she said, "shut up the Domain, and all go to board with Mrs.Hickox for the rest of the summer. I'm sure she'd take us quitecheaply."
At this Leicester started the old Dorrance groan, which had not beenheard before since their arrival at Lake Ponetcong.
They all joined in heartily, and groaned in concert, in loud, horribletones that echoed dismally through the long corridors.
It was characteristic of their different natures that Grandma Dorrancewent to bed, and immediately fell asleep in spite of her anxiety abouther affairs; while Dorothy lay awake far into the night pondering overthe problem.
She could form no plan, she was conscious only of a dogged determinationthat she would somehow conquer the existing difficulties, andtriumphantly save the day.
She thought of Lilian's practical suggestions, and though she admittedthem practical, she could not think them practicable. Surely there mustbe some way other than boarding at Mrs. Hickox's, or living on bread andtea.
"At any rate," she thought to herself as she finally fell asleep,"nothing will be done until Mr. Lloyd is heard from, and that will giveme at least two or three days to think of a plan."
But try as she would, the next day and the next, no acceptable planwould come into Dorothy's head.
"We are the most helpless family!" she thought to herself, as she lay inthe hammock under the trees. "There is positively nothing that we cando, that's of any use. But I will do something,--I _will_! I WILL!" andby way of emphasizing her determination she kicked her heel rightthrough the hammock.
The other children did not take it quite so seriously. They wereyounger, and they had a hazy sort of an idea that money troubles alwaysadjusted themselves, and somehow got out of the way.
Leicester and Dorothy talked matters over, for though younger, heconsidered himself the man of the house, and felt a certainresponsibility for that reason. But he could no more think of a planthan Dorothy could, and so he gave the problem up in despair, andapparently Dorothy did also.
However, even a serious trouble like this, was not sufficient to castdown the Dorrances' spirits to any great extent.
They went their ways about as usual; they rowed and fished and walkedand drove old Dobbin around, while their faces showed no sign of gloomor depression. That was the Dorrance nature, to be happy in spite ofimpending disaster.
Mr. Lloyd's letter came, but instead of helping matters, it left them inquite as much of a quandary as ever. He said that it would be impossibleto sell the town house during the summer season. That the repairs mustbe made, or the tenants would not be willing to stay. He advised Mrs.Dorrance to retrench her expenses in every possible way,
and statedfurther, that although the repairs must be made at once, it would not benecessary to pay the bills immediately on their presentation.
He said that although he would be glad to run up to see them in theircountry home, he could not leave the city at present, but he might beable to visit them later on.
Altogether it was not a satisfactory letter, and Leicester expressedopen disapproval.
"That's a nice thing," he said, "to tell us not to pay our bills! As ifwe wanted to live with a lot of debts hanging over our heads!"
"I think it's lucky that we don't have to pay them right off," saidDorothy; "something may happen before we have to pay them."
Dorothy had a decided touch of the Micawber element in her nature andusually lived in the hope of something happening. And, to do herjustice, it often did.
To the surprise of the others Fairy seemed very much impressed by thegravity of the situation, and more than that she seemed to think that itdevolved on her to do something to relieve it. She walked over to Mrs.Hickox's to make her usual Wednesday visit, and though she skipped alongas usual she was really thinking seriously.
She found Mrs. Hickox sitting on a bench under a tree paring apples, andFairy sat down beside her.
"Of course I'm only twelve," she began, "but really I can do a greatmany things; only the trouble is none of them seem to be remunerary."
The two had become great friends, and though Mrs. Hickox was a lady ofuncertain affections, she had taken a great fancy to Fairy, and in herqueer way showed a real fondness for the child. She had also becomeaccustomed to Fairy's manner of plunging suddenly into a subject.
"What is it you want to do now?" she said.
"Well, you see," said Fairy, "we've failed, or absconded, or somethinglike that; I don't know exactly all about it, but we're awful poor, andwe can't have anything more to eat. Some of us want to come to boardwith you, and some of us don't. You see it's very complicrated."
"Yes, it seems to be," said Mrs. Hickox; "but how did you get so poorall of a sudden? I always said you were all crazy and now I begin tobelieve it. Your grandmother----"
"Don't you say a word against my grannymother!" cried Fairy, withflashing eyes. "She's the loveliest, best and wisest lady in the wholeworld. Only somehow she just happened to lose her money, and so ofcourse us children want to help her all we can, and I just don't happento know what to do to earn money, that's all. And I thought you mightknow some way to tell me."
"I don't believe there's anything a child of your age could do to earnmoney," said Mrs. Hickox. "But now that I come to think of it, I did cutout a clipping just the other day, telling how to earn a good salary athome."
"Oh, that will be just the thing!" cried Fairy, dancing around in glee;"I'd love to earn a big salary and stay right there at the DorranceDomain to do it. Do try to find it."
Mrs. Hickox was in the habit of sticking away her clippings in variousqueer places. She pulled out a bunch from behind the clock, and ran themover; "How to Take Out Ink Stains," "How to Wash Clothes in SixMinutes," "How to Protect an Iron Lawn Fence," "How to Stuff Birds,Taught by Mail," "Sure Cure for Rheumatism," "Recipe for Soft Soap."
None of these seemed to be what was wanted, so Mrs. Hickox huntedthrough another bunch which she took out of an old and unused teapot.
Fairy danced around with impatience while her hostess went throughseveral collections.
"Oh, here it is," she said, at last, and then she read to the child amost promissory advertisement which set forth a tempting description ofhow any one might earn a large fortune by directing envelopes. The twotalked it over, and Fairy wrote for Mrs. Hickox a sample of herpenmanship, whereupon the lady at once declared that the scheme wasimpossible. For she said nobody could read such writing as that, and ifthey could, they wouldn't want to.
Fairy's disappointment was quite in proportion to the vividanticipations she had held, and she was on the verge of one of hervolcanic crying spells, when Mr. Hickox came in.
"Well, well, what's the trouble?" he said in his cheery way, and whenFairy explained, he responded:
"Well, well, little miss, don't you worry,--don't you worry one mite!Hickox'll fix it. It'll be all right!"
And so comforting was this assurance, and so sanguine was the Dorrancetemperament, that Fairy felt at once that everything was all right, anddismissed the whole subject from her mind.