"We could buy it cheap," continued Amarilly unabashed. "I heard the
grocer saying yesterday that property around here was at a low figure
now. We could put our savings together and make a payment down, and
instead of paying rent let it go on the balance each month. Before we
knew it we'd own the house, and the deed could be made out to show how
much of it each one owned."
"I choose the pantry!" cried Cory.
"I guess if you could buy a window-pane with what you've got, you'd do
well," observed Milt in a withering tone.
"That's a splendid idee, Amarilly!" declared the Boarder
enthusiastically. "I don't know what better investment you could make."
"It would be fine," sighed Mrs. Jenkins, "to own your own place and feel
that no one could turn you out."
"You've got a great head, Amarilly," complimented Gus.
"We could borrow on the house if we ever got hard up, or the fever
struck us again," said Flamingus.
"Well," proposed Amarilly, the ever-ready, "let's get right at it. I'll
set down our names, and when I call the roll, tell me how much you've
saved and will put in the house."
There was a general rush for bank-books, for ever since the preceding
fall, the six oldest children had paid their board, clothed themselves,
and saved the balance of their earnings.
From her washings, the revenue from the board of the children and
Boarder, Mrs. Jenkins had paid the rent and the household expenses. By
thrifty management she had also acquired a bank account herself.
"Ma!" called Amarilly expectantly.
There had been much urging on the part of Deny in his zeal for language reform to induce his young pupil to say
"mother," but in this sole instance Amarilly had refused to take his
will for law.
"She's always been 'ma' to me, and she always will be," declared
Amarilly emphatically. "If I were to call her anything else I'd feel as
if I had lost her--as if she didn't belong to me."
Ma triumphantly announced: "Forty-seven dollars and fifty-one cents."
"A fine starter," commended Amarilly, "Flamingus?"
"Forty dollars," he announced with pride.
"Milt?" Amarilly called his name in faint voice. He was the only tight-
tendencied member of the household, and she feared he might decline to
give. But Milt was envious and emulative.
"Forty-two dollars and sixty-nine cents," he declared in a voice
rendered triumphant by the fact of his having beaten Flam.