The Forerunner Part 19

"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 a.s.sistance, do you?"

"I know she'll miss me; but I haven't left the work on her shoulders. I am 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 grat.i.tude! 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 . . . $110.00 To school expenses . . . $76.00 To clothing, in full . . . $1,130.00 To board and lodging at $3.00 a week . . . $2,184.00 To incidentals . . . $100.00 -------- $3.600.00

He studied the various items carefully, stroking his beard, half in anger, half in unavoidable amus.e.m.e.nt. 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 . . . $30.00 Five years averaging $20 each year . . . $100.00 Five years averaging $30 each year . . . $50.00 Five 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 pa.s.sed 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

And quite a large margin left here, called miscellaneous, which he smiled to observe made just an even figure, and suspected she had put in for that purpose as well as from generosity.

"This board account looks kind of funny," he said--"only fourteen years of it!"

"I didn't take table-board--nor a room--the first year--nor much the second. I've allowed $1.00 a week for that, and $2.00 for the third--that takes out two, you see. Then it's $156 a year till I was fourteen and earned board and wages, two more years at $156--and I've paid since I was seventeen, you know."

"Well--I guess you did--I guess you did." He grinned genially. "Yes,"

he continued slowly, "I guess that's a fair enough account. 'Cording to this, you owe me $3,600.00, young woman! I didn't think it cost that much to raise a girl."

"I know it," said she. "But here's the other side."

It was the other side. He had never once thought of such a side to the case. This account was as clear and honest as the first and full of exasperating detail. She laid before him the second sheet of figures and watched while he read, explaining hurriedly:

"It was a clear expense for ten years--not counting help with the babies. Then I began to do housework regularly--when I was ten or eleven, two hours a day; three when I was twelve and thirteen--real work you'd have had to pay for, and I've only put it at ten cents an hour.

When Mother was sick the year I was fourteen, and I did it all but the washing--all a servant would have done for $3.00 a week. Ever since then I have done three hours a day outside of school, full grown work now, at twenty cents an hour. That's what we have to pay here, you know."

Thus it mounted up:

Mr. Henderson R. Bell, To Miss Diantha Bell, Dr.

For labor and services--

Two years, two hours a day at 10c. an hour . . . $146.00 Two years, three hours a day at 10c. an hour . . . $219.00 One year, full wages at $5.00 a week . . . $260.00 Six years and a half, three hours a day at 20c . . . $1423.50 -------- $2048.50

Mr. Bell meditated carefully on these figures. To think of that child's labor footing up to two thousand dollars and over! It was lucky a man had a wife and daughters to do this work, or he could never support a family.

Then came her school-teaching years. She had always been a fine scholar and he had felt very proud of his girl when she got a good school position in her eighteenth year.

California salaries were higher than eastern ones, and times had changed too; the year he taught school he remembered the salary was only $300.00--and he was a man. This girl got $600, next year $700, $800, $900; why it made $3,000 she had earned in four years. Astonishing.

Out of this she had a balance in the bank of $550.00. He was pleased to see that she had been so saving. And her clothing account--little enough he admitted for four years and six months, $300.00. All incidentals for the whole time, $50.00--this with her balance made just $900. That left $2,100.00.

"Twenty-one hundred dollars unaccounted for, young lady!--besides this nest egg in the bank--I'd no idea you were so wealthy. What have you done with all that?"

"Given it to you, Father," said she quietly, and handed him the third sheet of figures.

Board and lodging at $4.00 a week for 4 1/2 years made $936.00, that he could realize; but "cash advance" $1,164 more--he could not believe it.

That time her mother was so sick and Diantha had paid both the doctor and the nurse--yes--he had been much cramped that year--and nurses come high. For Henderson, Jr.'s, expenses to San Francisco, and again for Henderson when he was out of a job--Mr. Bell remembered the boy's writing for the money, and his not having it, and Mrs. Bell saying she could arrange with Diantha.

Arrange! And that girl had kept this n.i.g.g.ardly account of it! For Minnie's trip to the Yosemite--and what was this?--for his raisin experiment--for the new horse they simply had to have for the drying apparatus that year he lost so much money in apricots--and for the spraying materials--yes, he could not deny the items, and they covered that $1,164.00 exactly.

Then came the deadly balance, of the account between them:

Her labor . . . $2,047.00 Her board . . . $936.00 Her "cash advanced" . . . $1,164.00 --------- $4,147.00 His expense for her . . . $3,600 --------- Due her from him . . . $547.00

Diantha revolved her pencil between firm palms, and looked at him rather quizzically; while her mother rocked and darned and wiped away an occasional tear. She almost wished she had not kept accounts so well.

Mr. Bell pushed the papers away and started to his feet.

"This is the most shameful piece of calculation I ever saw in my life,"

said he. "I never heard of such a thing! You go and count up in cold dollars the work that every decent girl does for her family and is glad to! I wonder you haven't charged your mother for nursing her?"

"You notice I haven't," said Diantha coldly.