of the high school girls. Now here it is in plain English. You can help
get these things ready, and let us give them to her as we want----"

"She won't touch them!" cried Mrs. Comstock.

"Then you can pay us, and she can take them as her right----"

"I won't!"

"Then I will tell Elnora just what you are worth, what you can afford,
and how much of this she owns. I'll loan her the money to buy books and
decent clothes, and when she is of age she can sell her share and pay
me."

Mrs. Comstock gripped a chair-back and opened her lips, but no words
came.

"And," Sinton continued, "if she is so much like you that she won't do
that, I'll go to the county seat and lay complaint against you as her
guardian before the judge. I'll swear to what you are worth, and how you
are raising her, and have you discharged, or have the judge appoint some
man who will see that she is comfortable, educated, and decent looking!"

"You--you wouldn't!" gasped Kate Comstock.

"I won't need to, Kate!" said Sinton, his heart softening the instant
the hard words were said. "You won't show it, but you do love Elnora!
You can't help it! You must see how she needs things; come help us fix
them, and be friends. Maggie and I couldn't live without her, and you
couldn't either. You've got to love such a fine girl as she is; let it