Page:Man's Country (1923).pdf/52

 glance upon her sons, own brothers and yet so different. "You boys will have to quit school and go to work," she sighed.

"I'm willing," said Jim with an alacrity almost suspicious yet having a grateful sound to the ears of his parents.

"I'm not!" declared the younger boy stubbornly, with what seemed the first jarring note of selfishness that had been struck since an untoward accident had sweetened the unity of the home life. Hearing it, the bewhiskered face upon the pillow, whitening on cheeks and forehead under its coat of weathered tan, shifted abruptly, and the quick, close-set eyes of gray slanted their piercing, pain-shot beams upon the face of this youngest child who had spoken his rebellion with such studied resolution as if he had been a man. His mother's lip quivered, and her startled, hurt eyes also reproached him.

"Son!" she chided.

"Oh, I'll help, mother," assured George with a worried look. "I'll help, Dad. I'll dig up as many dollars for the house every month as Jim will; only I won't quit school. I'll get a paper route to carry in the morning; I'll get another for the afternoon; I'll work Saturdays. I'll find ways to earn money and to earn enough, but I won't quit school."