THE APPLE TREE GIRL
The very next day but one she received an official letter from the School Committee, formally appointing her to the vacant position. The salary was twenty-five dollars a month; but she couldn't have been any happier if it had been two hundred and fifty.
"I'm independent—independent!" she sang to herself, with much the same spirit, no doubt, that her forebears sang after a certain momentous affair which began in 1776; and she ran to the kitchen with the look of one who had the world at her feet.
"So you're really going?" asked Aunt Grace in a tired, flat voice. Aunt Grace had been ironing Margaret's dresses for the last two hours and looked as tired as she sounded.
- Yes, aunty, and I'm awfully sorry everytime I think of leaving you. Mr. Briggs is going to drive me over in the morning, so I must pack now."
Aunt Grace put the cool iron back on
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