Three Little Women's Success: A Story for Girls

in which she could make her candy, he was not a little surprised at the sixteen-year-old girl's practical ideas. She asked him to build an extension to th

, walls and ceiling scrupulous. Long zinc-covered tables ready for the pans of candy, little portable stands at hand to hold the boxes in which the candy was to be packed. Perhaps the most practical feature of this packing room was the height of the tables, or more correctly their lack of height. Constance had reason to know that one can be foot-weary after several hours

ange stood at one side, near it hung pans, pots and kettles of every size and possible need, all of white enamel ware. A big porcelain sink and draining tray stood next. Close at hand was a large table, its top of wh

were shelves to hold the hundred and one ingredients which were to be transformed into the most toothsome of dainties, and

ty of this little lady to keep track of her finances. And room number five? Ah, the eternal feminine! Who says she must waive all claim to her womanly instincts, merge them in the coarser, less refined ones of the hurrying, struggling world around her when she sets out to be a bread-winner a

etty figured Japanese crepe, stood about. In one corner a couch with a delft blue and white cover and enough pillows to spell luxury, invited weary bodies to rest when labors were ended, and yet never once hinted that by removing the cover and pillows a bed stood ready for a guest if extra space were needed. Book shelves of white enameled wood filled half one side of the room, and held

refinement of heart, mind, soul and body hold as invaluable and indeprivable heritages. Possibly the best proof that she had taken the lesson to heart lay in the fact that "Pearl" Willing had completely dropped out of the world's ken, and in her stead, quiet, dignified Mary Willing moved and had her being. Unconsciously Mrs. Carruth had undertaken to solve a knotty, sociological problem, but the results already obtained seemed to justify her belief that she was right in her estimate of this girl. At all events she had reason to be sanguine of ultimate success in bending a hitherto neglected twig. It needed courage, however, upon Mrs. Carruth's part to undertake this reformation. From her childhood, to her nineteenth year Mary Willing's environment had been, if not demoralizing, certainly

tinually urged her to make the most of her good looks while she had them, assuring her that unles

her from anything worse than shallow flirtations; and then when everything seemed conspiring to lead her to more serious consequences of her folly, Fate had established close at her side a personality and atmosphere in suc

sponsibilities. Perhaps therein lay her greatest strength. Then came the accident on the river, and Mrs. Carruth, quick to read and comprehend, found a field for the sweetest missionary work a woman can enter upon-that of shaping the life of a young girl for the

d loveliest girl that ever lived," as she confided to her mother. The greatest obstacle to be overcome was the unhappy influence in Mary Willing's own home life. It sometimes seemed to Mrs. Carruth that whatever good they accomplished in the five and a half working days of the week was entirely undone during the one day and a half which the girl spent in the hurly-burly, the untidiness and hopeless shallowness of her own home, to say nothing of the coarsening influence of a worthless, dissipated father's presence. Mrs. Carruth believed that Mary Willing had naturally been endowed with instincts far above the average of her class, though from what source inherited she could not understand, and that all needed to develop them was a more wholesome atmosphere, wise guiding, and, of course, separation from former contaminating influences. But she bided her time and, when least expecting to do so, discovered the secret. At length, when she felt the moment to be ripe, she suggested most tactfully that Mary come to live with them, to occupy the little room which had once been Mammy's, but, since her marriage to Charles, and her removal to the snug cottage adjoining the candy kitchen, had been newly decorated and furnish

ou must let me pay my board," she cried, impulsively. Then, noticing the color which crept into the older woman's face, she hastened to add, contritely: "Oh, dear me! Shall I ever learn how to say things? I'm-I'm so-I mean I know so little. Please forgive me, Mrs. Carruth. I didn't stop to think how rude that wa

change the salary. Constance had already thought of increasing the sum she is now paying you, for you earn i

glad! I want

et the little room and the 'bread and

in a little ecstacy of rapture, and cried: "I'll live up to every single thing in it, for only a gentlewoman could have arranged such a room, and only a gentlewoman has any right to live in it. It j