Saturdays Child

Saturday's Child

The Project Gutenberg Etext of Saturday's Child, by Kathleen Norris
#6 in our series by Kathleen Norris
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Title: Saturday's Child
Author: Kathleen Norris
Release Date: November, 2003 [Etext #4687] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on March 2,
2002]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
The Project Gutenberg Etext of Saturday's Child, by Kathleen Norris
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THE WORKS OF KATHLEEN NORRIS
SATURDAY'S CHILD
VOLUME IV

"Friday's child is loving and giving; But Saturday's child must work for
her living."

To C. G. N.
How shall I give you this, who long have known Your gift of all the
best of life to me? No living word of mine could ever be Without the
stirring echo of your own. Under your hand, as mine, this book has
grown, And you, whose faith sets all my musing free, You, whose true
vision helps my eyes to see, Know that these pages are not mine alone.

Not mine to give, not yours, the happy days, The happy talks, the
hoping and the fears That made this story of a happy life. But, in dear
memory of your words of praise, And grateful memory of four busy
years, Accept her portion of it, from your wife.

PART ONE
Poverty

SATURDAY'S CHILD

CHAPTER I
Not the place in which to look for the Great Adventure, the dingy,
narrow office on the mezzanine floor of Hunter, Baxter & Hunter's
great wholesale drug establishment, in San Francisco city, at the
beginning of the present century. Nothing could have seemed more
monotonous, more grimy, less interesting, to the outsider's eye at least,
than life as it presented itself to the twelve women who were employed
in bookkeeping there. Yet, being young, as they all were, each of these
girls was an adventuress, in a quiet way, and each one dreamed bright
dreams in the dreary place, and waited, as youth must wait, for fortune,
or fame, or position, love or power, to evolve itself somehow from the
dulness of her days, and give her the key that should open--and
shut--the doors of Hunter, Baxter & Hunter's offices to her forever.
And, while they waited, working over the unvaried, stupid columns of
the company's books, they talked, confided, became friends, and
exchanged shy hints of ambition. The ill-ventilated, neglected room
was a little world, and rarely, in a larger world, do women come to
know each other as intimately as these women did.
Therefore, on a certain sober September morning, the fact that Miss
Thornton, familiarly known as "Thorny," was out of temper, speedily
became known to all the little force. Miss Thornton was not only the
oldest clerk there, but she was the highest paid, and the longest in the
company's employ; also she was by