Part 19 (2/2)

”Well--I guess you did--I guess you did.” He grinned genially. ”Yes,”

he continued slowly, ”I guess that's a fair enough account. 'Cording to this, you owe me $3,600.00, young woman! I didn't think it cost that much to raise a girl.”

”I know it,” said she. ”But here's the other side.”

It was the other side. He had never once thought of such a side to the case. This account was as clear and honest as the first and full of exasperating detail. She laid before him the second sheet of figures and watched while he read, explaining hurriedly:

”It was a clear expense for ten years--not counting help with the babies. Then I began to do housework regularly--when I was ten or eleven, two hours a day; three when I was twelve and thirteen--real work you'd have had to pay for, and I've only put it at ten cents an hour.

When Mother was sick the year I was fourteen, and I did it all but the was.h.i.+ng--all a servant would have done for $3.00 a week. Ever since then I have done three hours a day outside of school, full grown work now, at twenty cents an hour. That's what we have to pay here, you know.”

Thus it mounted up:

Mr. Henderson R. Bell, To Miss Diantha Bell, Dr.

For labor and services--

Two years, two hours a day at 10c. an hour . . . $146.00 Two years, three hours a day at 10c. an hour . . . $219.00 One year, full wages at $5.00 a week . . . $260.00 Six years and a half, three hours a day at 20c . . . $1423.50 -------- $2048.50

Mr. Bell meditated carefully on these figures. To think of that child's labor footing up to two thousand dollars and over! It was lucky a man had a wife and daughters to do this work, or he could never support a family.

Then came her school-teaching years. She had always been a fine scholar and he had felt very proud of his girl when she got a good school position in her eighteenth year.

California salaries were higher than eastern ones, and times had changed too; the year he taught school he remembered the salary was only $300.00--and he was a man. This girl got $600, next year $700, $800, $900; why it made $3,000 she had earned in four years. Astonis.h.i.+ng.

Out of this she had a balance in the bank of $550.00. He was pleased to see that she had been so saving. And her clothing account--little enough he admitted for four years and six months, $300.00. All incidentals for the whole time, $50.00--this with her balance made just $900. That left $2,100.00.

”Twenty-one hundred dollars unaccounted for, young lady!--besides this nest egg in the bank--I'd no idea you were so wealthy. What have you done with all that?”

”Given it to you, Father,” said she quietly, and handed him the third sheet of figures.

Board and lodging at $4.00 a week for 4 1/2 years made $936.00, that he could realize; but ”cash advance” $1,164 more--he could not believe it.

That time her mother was so sick and Diantha had paid both the doctor and the nurse--yes--he had been much cramped that year--and nurses come high. For Henderson, Jr.'s, expenses to San Francisco, and again for Henderson when he was out of a job--Mr. Bell remembered the boy's writing for the money, and his not having it, and Mrs. Bell saying she could arrange with Diantha.

Arrange! And that girl had kept this n.i.g.g.ardly account of it! For Minnie's trip to the Yosemite--and what was this?--for his raisin experiment--for the new horse they simply had to have for the drying apparatus that year he lost so much money in apricots--and for the spraying materials--yes, he could not deny the items, and they covered that $1,164.00 exactly.

Then came the deadly balance, of the account between them:

Her labor . . . $2,047.00 Her board . . . $936.00 Her ”cash advanced” . . . $1,164.00 --------- $4,147.00 His expense for her . . . $3,600 --------- Due her from him . . . $547.00

Diantha revolved her pencil between firm palms, and looked at him rather quizzically; while her mother rocked and darned and wiped away an occasional tear. She almost wished she had not kept accounts so well.

Mr. Bell pushed the papers away and started to his feet.

”This is the most shameful piece of calculation I ever saw in my life,”

said he. ”I never heard of such a thing! You go and count up in cold dollars the work that every decent girl does for her family and is glad to! I wonder you haven't charged your mother for nursing her?”

”You notice I haven't,” said Diantha coldly.

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