Page:A Girl of the Limberlost.djvu/66

 soon I got desperate, just as Freckles did. But I am better off than he was, for I have his books, and I have a mother; even if she don't care for me as other girls' mothers do for them, it's better than no one."

The Bird Woman's glance fell, for the girl was not conscious of how much she was revealing. Her eyes were fixed on a black pitcher filled with goldenrod in the centre of the table and she was saying what she thought.

"As long as I could go to the Brushwood school I was happy, but I couldn't go further just when things got the most interesting, so I was bound I'd come to high school and mother wouldn't consent. You see there's plenty of land, but father was drowned when I was a baby, and mother and I can't make money as men do. The taxes get bigger every year, and she said it was too expensive. I wouldn't give her any rest, until at last she got me this dress, and these shoes and I came. It was awful!"

Elnora stopped short and stared into the Bird Woman's face.

"Do you live in that beautiful cabin at the northwest end of the swamp?" asked the Bird Woman.

"Yes," said Elnora.

"I remember the place and a story about it now. You entered the high school yesterday?"

"Yes."

"It was pretty bad?"

"Pretty bad!" echoed Elnora.

The Bird Woman laughed.

"You can't tell me anything about that," she said.