The Camp Fire Girls in the Outside World | Page 7

was
beginning to feel anxious to get upstairs to her mother again. For in
spite of the fact that she now believed that she had a real affection for
Esther, she had never been able to recover from her first prejudice for
this shabby, hesitating man. Then his manner toward her was always so
apologetic. Why on earth should it be? She was always perfectly polite
to him. What a queer combination of Thanksgiving visitors she was
having!

"Gnädiges Fräulein," he began. And Betty ushered him into the
drawing room. For perhaps he was bringing her news of Esther.
CHAPTER III
HER PENSION
"Good luck never rains but it pours, as well as bad luck, mother," Betty
Ashton said one morning nearly a week later. She had just put down a
big tray of breakfast on a small table before Mrs. Ashton and now
seated herself on the opposite side.
Mrs. Ashton sighed. "If your good luck storm has any reference to us,
Betty dear, I am sure I don't get your point of view. For if anything but
misfortune has followed our footsteps since your father's death I am
sure I should like to hear what it is." And Mrs. Ashton shivered,
drawing her light woolen shawl closer about her shoulders.
There are some persons in this world whom troubles brace. After the
first shock of a sorrow or calamity has passed they stand reinforced
with new strength and new courage. These are the world's successful
people. For after a while, ill luck, finding that it can never down a
really valiant spirit, grows weary and leaves it alone. Then the good
things have their turn--health, better and more admiring friends, fame,
money, love. Whatever the struggle has been made for, if it has been
sufficiently brave and persistent, the reward is sure. But there are other
men and women, or girls and boys, for age makes no difference, who
go down like wilted flowers in the teeth of the first storm. And on them
life is apt to trample, misfortunes to pile up.
Mrs. Ashton was one of these women. She had made things doubly
hard for Betty and Dick. Indeed, except for his sister, Richard Ashton
would never have had the strength of purpose to sail for Germany to
complete his medical studies. He would simply have surrendered and
commenced his practice of medicine in Woodford without being
properly equipped for perhaps the greatest of all the professions--the
struggle to conquer disease. Yet somehow Betty had had a clearer
vision than can be expected of most girls of her age. In a vague way she

had understood that it is oftentimes wiser to make a present sacrifice
for some greater future gain. So she had persuaded Dick to use the little
money that he had for his work, assuring him that she and her mother
could get on perfectly well together at home. And with half a dozen
summer boarders at the time of his leaving, it did look to Dick as
though her confidence was not misplaced.
Now in answer to her mother's speech Betty said nothing at first. So
that several tears sliding down Mrs. Ashton's cheeks watered her hot
buttered toast.
"I am sure I never expected to live to see this day, my dear, when you
would have to cook your own breakfast and mine before you could
leave for school," she murmured. "Why, I never thought that you would
have to turn over your hand even to look after yourself. Until you
developed that Camp Fire enthusiasm you had not been taught a single
useful thing. After all, perhaps it might have been better for you if I had
never been your mother, if----"
Betty laughed teasingly. "My dear Mrs. Ashton, you talk as if you
could have avoided that affliction! You could not very well have helped
being my mother, could you? You did not deliberately choose me out
from a lot of girls. Because if you did, I should have very little respect
for your good judgment. Think, if you might have selected either Polly
or Esther! Why, then you would be sure to be rich again some day. For
one of them would act so marvelously that she would be able to cast
laurels at your feet, while the other would sing you back to fortune. But
as it is, you will just have to put up with poor me until Dick gets his
chance. Now do eat your breakfast while I relate the details of our good
luck storm. In the first place, we are not going to have to give up our
beloved house. At least not yet, and perhaps never if our
German-American Pension plan turns out satisfactorily."
Betty drank a swallow of coffee, hardly appreciating what she