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 226  be possible to remove any portion of their precious seven and a half dollars without withdrawing it all—they knew little of business matters. Neither did they think of appealing to their parents for aid at this crisis; but, indeed, they were all too dazed from the suddenness and tremendousness of the blow to think very clearly about anything. The sum needed seemed a large one to the girls, who habitually bought a cent's worth of candy at a time from the generous proprietor of the little corner shop. Mabel, the only one with an allowance, was, to her father's way of thinking, a hopeless little spendthrift, already deeply plunged in debt by her unpaid fines for lateness to meals.

The Tucker income did not go round for the grown-ups, so of course there were few pennies for the Tucker children. Marjory's Aunty Jane had ideas of her own on the subject of spending-money for little girls—Marjory did not suspect that the good, but rather austere woman made a weekly