Her mother was patiently darning large socks with many holes--a kind of work she specially disliked."You'll have to get some new socks, Father," she ventured, "these are pretty well gone.""O they'll do a good while yet," he replied, not looking at them."Ilike your embroidery, my dear."
That pleased her.She did not like to embroider, but she did like to be praised.
Diantha took some socks and set to work, red-checked and excited, but silent yet.Her mother's needle trembled irregularly under and over, and a tear or two slid down her cheeks.
Finally Mr.Bell laid down his finished paper and his emptied pipe and said, "Now then.Out with it."This was not a felicitious opening.It is really astonishing how little diplomacy parents exhibit, how difficult they make it for the young to introduce a proposition.There was nothing for it but a bald statement, so Diantha made it baldly.
"I have decided to leave home and go to work," she said.
"Don't you have work enough to do at home?" he inquired, with the same air of quizzical superiority which had always annoyed her so intensely, even as a little child.
She would cut short this form of discussion: "I am going away to earn my living.I have given up school-teaching--I don't like it, and, there isn't money enough in it.I have plans--which will speak for themselves later.""So," said Mr.Bell, "Plans all made, eh? I suppose you've considered your Mother in these plans?""I have," said his daughter."It is largely on her account that I'm going.""You think it'll be good for your Mother's health to lose your assistance, do you?""I know she'll miss me; but I haven't left the work on her shoulders.Iam going to pay for a girl--to do the work I've done.It won't cost you any more, Father; and you'll save some--for she'll do the washing too.
You didn't object to Henderson's going--at eighteen.You didn't object to Minnie's going--at seventeen.Why should you object to my going--at twenty-one.""I haven't objected--so far," replied her father."Have your plans also allowed for the affection and duty you owe your parents?""I have done my duty--as well as I know how," she answered."Now I am twenty-one, and self-supporting--and have a right to go.""O yes.You have a right--a legal right--if that's what you base your idea of a child's duty on! And while you're talking of rights--how about a parent's rights? How about common gratitude! How about what you owe to me--for all the care and pains and cost it's been to bring you up.A child's a rather expensive investment these days."Diantha flushed.she had expected this, and yet it struck her like a blow.It was not the first time she had heard it--this claim of filial obligation.
"I have considered that position, Father.I know you feel that way--you've often made me feel it.So I've been at some pains to work it out--on a money basis.Here is an account--as full as I could make it." She handed him a paper covered with neat figures.The totals read as follows:
Miss Diantha Bell, To Mr.Henderson R.Bell, Dr.
To medical and dental expenses...$110.00To school expenses...$76.00
To clothing, in full...$1,130.00
To board and lodging at $3.00 a week...$2,184.00To incidentals...$100.00
--------
$3.600.00
He studied the various items carefully, stroking his beard, half in anger, half in unavoidable amusement.Perhaps there was a tender feeling too, as he remembered that doctor's bill--the first he ever paid, with the other, when she had scarlet fever; and saw the exact price of the high chair which had served all three of the children, but of which she magnanimously shouldered the whole expense.
The clothing total was so large that it made him whistle--he knew he had never spent $1,130.00 on one girl's clothes.But the items explained it.
Materials, three years at an average of $10 a year...$30.00Five years averaging $20 each year...$100.00Five years averaging $30 each year...$50.00Five years averaging $50 each year...$250.00-------
$530.00
The rest was "Mother's labor, averaging twenty full days a year at $2 a day, $40 a year.For fifteen years, $600.00.Mother's labor--on one child's, clothes--footing up to $600.00.It looked strange to see cash value attached to that unfailing source of family comfort and advantage.
The school expenses puzzled him a bit, for she had only gone to public schools; but she was counting books and slates and even pencils--it brought up evenings long passed by, the sewing wife, the studying children, the "Say, Father, I've got to have a new slate--mine's broke!""Broken, Dina," her Mother would gently correct, while he demanded, "How did you break it?" and scolded her for her careless tomboy ways.
Slates--three, $1.50--they were all down.And slates didn't cost so much come to think of it, even the red-edged ones, wound with black, that she always wanted.
Board and lodging was put low, at $3.00 per week, but the items had a footnote as to house-rent in the country, and food raised on the farm.
Yes, he guessed that was a full rate for the plain food and bare little bedroom they always had.
"It's what Aunt Esther paid the winter she was here," said Diantha.
Circuses--three...$1.50
Share in melodeon...$50.00
Yes, she was one of five to use and enjoy it.
Music lessons...$30.00
