Straight Forward by Lucy Ellen Guernsey

"BUT this is such a little matter, Lucy,-only a dollar!"

"Whether it is little or much does not signify, so long as I cannot afford it," was the reply, and the speaker laid down the pretty set of tablets she held in her hands, and turned to look at something else.

"I think you are very foolish," continued the first speaker. "They are the prettiest I ever saw, and very cheap. Janet Graves paid twice as much for hers, and they are no better. Come, Lucy, be advised, and take a set."

"If you have no money with you, it is of no consequence," observed the polite shopman; "you can easily hand it to me another time; and, as the young lady observed, these are really superior articles."

Lucy's determination, however, was not to be moved, and her companion turned from her, and addressed herself to another young lady, who was also examining the tablets.

"Well, Emily, have you found a set to suit you?"

"I like these very well," replied Emily, in rather an undecided tone; "but I have no money with me."

"That need make no difference," said the person in attendance; "I can add it to the bill."

Emily hesitated, looked again, and finally decided to take the tablets. The party of school girls then proceeded to a dry-goods store, where Lucy inquired for gloves, and her companions for embroideries and laces. A splendid stock of the latter was soon displayed before their admiring eyes, and the girls began to turn them over, with many exclamations at their beauty. Even Emily admitted that the prices were wonderfully low, though she made no attempt to purchase.

"Come," said Delia Mason, after she had selected and paid for some articles for herself, "now is the time to supply yourselves with collars. You will allow, Lucy, that these are really worth having."

"They are very pretty, if one wants them," replied Lucy, smiling, "but I do not stand in need of anything of the sort at present."

"Just like her! " said Delia half aloud, as Lucy walked to the other end of the shop. "I should not like to be as stingy as she is. She has plenty of money, too, for I saw her purse yesterday when she was buying some oranges in the hall, and she had quite a roll of bills. She never thought whether or not she could afford that."

"She gave them to little Kitty Mastick, I know," said Emily, looking round to see that Lucy was not within hearing. "Lucy is careful of her money it is true, but I don't think you do right to call her stingy. She is always ready to assist poor people, or do anything of that sort, and she subscribed more for the reading room than you did, Delia."

"Oh, yes, because she knows it pays," sneered Delia. "The teachers always think well of any one who subscribes to the reading room."

"Oh, come Delia, that is hardly fair. You know you said yourself; that Lucy was very good-natured when she took care of Clarissa Crosby all that time when she had the toothache. I am sure she is always ready to do a good turn for any one that wants it."

"I don't deny that Lucy is a very good girl," replied Delia, apparently rather ashamed of what she had said, "and, of course, she knows her own affairs best. But come, don't you mean to have some of these collars? I am sure you need them, for yours are as old-fashioned as the days before the flood."

Emily again pleaded her want of money, and was again over-ruled, and the collars were folded up, and the price added to her account. The purchase was a beautiful one, and the price was certain sufficiently reasonable, yet it was with an uneasy feeling that she pursued her walk homeward with Delia, Lucy having dropped a little behind, with one of the day scholars, who had joined them as they issued from the store.

"I wish I had not bought those things," said she at last. "My old collars would have answered well enough, and I have spent four dollars since I came out, for things, which after all were not necessary."

"You have not exactly spent it," observed Delia.

"I have run in debt though, and that is even worse," replied Emily. "Father is so very particular about that. I believe he thinks it is as bad as stealing. I must contrive some way to pay my bills before he finds them out; I should think they would not come to much altogether! Let me see. " And she began a mental calculation, which, however, she soon abandoned, for Emily was not one to look a disagreeable truth in the face, so long as she could help it, and she could not help seeing that the amount was likely, after all, to be very considerable.