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Show THE ODD ONE Cr,lUitVm-0tllJer'.there won,t be a "ngle girl of my. especial friends m school after "this year!" Lucie paused to allow her mother to grasp th? full significance signi-ficance of this fact.. "Not ne! she repeated. :m-prcssively. :m-prcssively. Mrs. Campbell did not seem as overwhelmed as i .LI f expc,cted- "Indeed, dear," she said quietly, quiet-ly, that is unfortunate. But does that necessarily make a difference as to your plans?" .No difference, mother?" Lucie cried. "Why, I don t want to be the odd one ! Grace and Elise are pom? to finish at Miss Partridge's school," she added, suggestively. , "Yes, dear. But the yearly tuition of that school amounts to two-thirds of your father's salary. sal-ary. It would be out of the question, even if we felt certain that the influences there would be best for you." , "And the others are going to drop school," continued con-tinued Lucie. ''Caroline's father savs that there are plenty of things a girl can learn right at home." "Ttat is true, Lucie. But at the same time, the demand for trained drains is constantly increasing. A girl can learn the arts of homemaking without neglecting her education, and that is something I am not willing you should do." That should have settled the question. But as a matter of fact, it did not. When the school year opened and Lucie was the only representative of a little circle of girls who had been fast friends since their kindergarten davs, her interest in her work seemed to vanish. She had not learned that numbers num-bers do not decide questions of right or even of expediency. ex-pediency. And she was foolishly ambitious to be cm the side of the majority. Her listlessness and indifference showed in her class standings. She welcomed every excuse for absenting herself from the sessions of school. Her father and mother began be-gan to realize that the situation was more serious than they had supposed. y "t isn't merely that 6he is missing her chance for an education," Mr. Campbell said to his wife, "but she is getting the wrong education. She is learning learn-ing half-hearted methods. She is becoming a shirk." But his expostulations and her mother's remonstrances remon-strances had strangely little effect on Lucie. She wanted to do as the other girls had done, and felt ill-used and unhappy when the opportunity was denied her. Discontent has an unfortunate effect on the health. Lucie was taken sick, and the doctor advised ad-vised her parents not to send her back to school that year. When the question was broached the following fall, she pleaded so piteously to stay at home that, almost against their better judgment, the perplexed parents yielded. At 15 Lucie's school life had come to an end, and she was perfectly satisfied, sat-isfied, because she was no longer "the odd one" of her little circle. Three years passed before anything happened to make her doubt the wisdom of her choice. Then came the financial panic, which dffectcd the business busi-ness of the entire country, and worked havoc in the little city of Bruxton. Failure followed failure. One afternoon Lucie came in from a walk to find her father at home. He was leaning back in the big chair looking very white, and his eyes were closed. His wife sat beside him, passing her hand gently over his contracted brows. Lucie uttered a startled exclamation. "Is father sick?" "Not sick, only tired," Mrs. Campbell answered, and she made a gesture which Lucie understood to mean that no more questions were to be asked. It was a full hour before she found a chance to give Lucie the explanation she wanted. "Westcott & Clark have failed. Your father is without a position." posi-tion." "But of course he can get another !" Lucie cried with the buoyant optimism of inexperience. Her mother checked a sigh. "We will hope so," she said. "But it is a bad time for that just now. Firms are discharging their men instead of taking tak-ing on new ones." For a momentf her anxiety betrayed be-trayed itself in her face. Then, by a resolute effort, ef-fort, she regained control of herself and went smilingly smil-ingly back to her husband, as if her heart were But Lucie, who had seen the momentary betrayal, be-trayal, thrilled with sudden womanliness. She would'help. She was young and strong, and there must be a chance for her. An unspeakable tenderness tender-ness for the father who had worked for his home so unremittingly since her first recollections, welled up in her heart. Now it was her time to work for imjhe next day, without speaking of her purpose to anyone, she went to the office of the chairman of the school board. He was a friend of her father's fath-er's and had known her since her babyhood, and she felt sure of his sympathetic interest, "les, that's rieht," he said, when she had told her errand er-rand "You feel as if you wanted to be a help in this 'criis. I think perhaps we can do something for vouf Let me see, what year did you graduate?" "II didn't graduate," explained Lucie. I left the hifrh school the first term of the second year." "Indeed'" The hope in Lucie's heart dropped like the mercury in a thermometer at a blast of a chilling north wind. "I'm sorry to hear that," sa,d the gentleman, gravely. "That make, a dnTerenee. We're particular about our teachers nowadays, Mis Lucie. A high school course is the least we can P0Sf sudden dnmess of Lucie's throat made it im- !Tr her to replv. She pushed back her SS J -ade'an effJU to rise.. But the chair- J hP school board was knitting his brows over m nroMem. "Wait a moment," he ex- daimed I ST PM f which will be vacant in about two weeks. Possibly 1 the jSJTirdry lips and answered hnJ the chairman of the school board 'iu i vwilv regret. "Well, my dear young lady, with .kindly regre imeed thl 1SaZ likely to be without positions. And I workers are lkey defi.tp nerd not ten workJ mfly e-pect a hard training Jir a"-Y 1 tiDn'e did not need to tell her, indeed! -But though lie m ' Vfrom his office with a sense of humil-ilTionand humil-ilTionand discouragement, new to her experience, that was but the beginning. For weeks she continued contin-ued her search for employment. She inserted advertisements ad-vertisements in the daily papers. She studied the column, "Help Wanted, Female," at first eagerly, later with the dogged persistence that would not give up. Her father was at work again, though in a position inferior to that he had formerly held, before Lucie was engaged to read three hours a day to an invalid. She was paid for this service the sum of $3 a week. "I wouldn't mind paying more to the right person," the old lady told her frankly, "but you read so badly, mydear." v It is a long lane that has no turning. The reaction reac-tion from the business depression came at last. Industries In-dustries which had lain dormant for months, woke up and pushed ahead. Lucie's father secured a position at a better salary, and Lucie's $3 a wpek was no longer necessary to eke out the family in-come. in-come. The invalid parted with Lucie reluctantly. "You're a nice, amiable girl," she said. "And you've improved in your reading. I wouldn't mind paying a dollar more to keep you." "I shan't be able to do it any longer." Lucie explained, the color rising in her cheeks. "I'm going go-ing back to school." Her mother looked at her hard when Lucie announced an-nounced that determination. "It will be a trying place for you. Lucie," she said. "Your old ac-. ac-. quaintanees will have graduated. You will be much older than the majority of your classmates. You will seem the odd one." She had a purpose in answering an-swering as she did. She was anxious to see what her daughter had really learned from the experiences exper-iences of those trying months. Lucie smiled. Her eves met her mother's frankly. frank-ly. "Yes, I know," she said. "But that doesn't worry wor-ry me now. I've learned that doing as others do is less important than choosing what is best for one's self." Catholic News. |