Page:Anna Chapin--Half a dozen boys.djvu/248

220 lessened her father’s income, and reduced the family from the comfortable position of doing  just about as their rather simple inclinations  led them, to the need of carefully counting the  smaller expenses that so quickly absorb money,—no marked change, only they did not travel  quite as much, nor keep a horse and carriage,  nor have quite so many gowns, while those  they had they made themselves. The more than liberal sum that Mr. Allen was paying  them for the board and care of Fred was far  more helpful than he had realized when he had  made them the offer, although the money bargain had been by no means a determining  cause in their taking Fred into their home. And, this year, Bess had felt that it would be more than ever impossible for her to go away  to leave Fred, both on her mother’s account  and the boy’s own, for the child clung to her  more and more closely, with a devotion touching to see.

But Alice and Jack had smoothed away every difficulty, and Bess, with her conscience  at rest, could now accept their threefold invitation. Now there was a prospect of change,