They recognized a set of firmness around her lips that portended a state of mind hard to move. They had had experience before with that look on her face and felt more trouble ahead.

Rilla fairly flew at the dishes when they were done, and very soon everything was in place.

“Now!” said Thurlow, leading his mother to her comfortable chair in the living room. “Let’s hear the worst!”

The mother went to her desk and got a long envelope, returning to her chair.

“I’ve been going over the papers in the desk, getting ready to move,” she said as she sat down, “and I found some papers I had forgotten all about.”

She opened the envelope and took out a long, official-looking document.

“It’s a deed,” she explained, “a deed to a small property down on the south side of the city. Your father took it over from a man who owed him some money. The man’s wife died, and he wanted to move away quickly, so your father took the property. It isn’t worth very much, but the taxes are paid, and it’s ours. I know you will not think it is a pleasant place to live, but we can’t help that now. It’s big enough to house us, and it won’t cost us anything. There is a barn on the place big enough to store the goods we want to keep. I’m selling some of them, of course. That will bring in a few more dollars to live on till times improve. I called up your Mrs. Steele, and she said she thought the ladies would like to purchase a couple of bedroom sets from the guest rooms. We won’t need so many again, and they are not especially interesting to us to keep. We never had any sentiment connected with them. The bookcases, too, won’t fit anywhere else.”

The son and daughter looked at one another and gasped.

“But, Mother,” demurred Thurlow, “you don’t realize at all what kind of a neighborhood the South Side is. You wouldn’t stand it a day, and it’s no place for a girl like Rilla to be.”

“I thought you’d say that,” said the mother, “so I went down there yesterday while you were off. I sent Rilla to return some books we had borrowed from two or three places, and I took the trolley down there. It isn’t fashionable, if that’s what you mean. I’ll admit there are several factories nearby, and the railroad runs behind the house, but the lot is quite deep, and it’s only a siding from the main track, running down to a factory two blocks away. Anyway, I think we should move there for the present.”

“But, Mother, why be so economical when we have that extra money?”

“Because we’ve got to save every cent. By the time we are moved, there will be very little left to live on. You haven’t either of you an idea how much it costs just to eat. Of course, if we’re able to get jobs, all three of us, we can in time catch up and have things a little easier, but at first we’ve got to be very careful!”

“Mother! Not you!” Rilla was aghast, and Thurlow rose up sternly.

“Yes, of course I’m going to get a job,” said Mrs. Reed. “I’m not too old. I can get plain sewing if I can’t get anything else, but I’m getting a job! That’s settled. And we’ll all work with a will this winter—unless”—and a faint gleam of a smile shadowed out—“unless the bank opens again before fall.”

“The bank won’t open again!” said Thurlow with a sad conviction in his voice. “Mr. Stanwood told me it is in a bad way, and we’re just going to have to calculate without that bank.