THE APPLE TREE GIRL
On the very next day an event took place which drove all thoughts of the Three Great Sums completely out of her mind. Judge Darbie called to see Aunt Grace, and then Charlotte was sent for. They broke the news to her as gently as they could, but when it was over Charlotte knew that the Marlin Creamery Company had gone into bankruptcy with such a crash that her bonds were practically worthless, that her income of ten dollars a week had utterly ceased to exist, and that all she had left in the world was the old Marlin farm and one hundred and eight dollars in the bank.
"So I'm not only homely," she whispered to her sober little self that night, "I'm poor as well!" And listening to Margaret, who was playing the piano to Willis Hayland, downstairs, she couldn't help half sobbing to herself: "Oh, dear! I'd rather be smart than pretty, but doesn't it make an awful lot of work?"
53
