"Then,--Wednesday before last, it was,--he had a bleeding, and sank away
like all in a minute, and was gone before the doctor could be had. Mis
Starkey was all stunned like with the shock of it; and before she had got
her mind cleared up so's to order about anything, come a telegraph to say
her son was down with diphtheria, and his wife with a young baby, and both
was very low. And between one and the other she was pretty near out of her
wits. We packed her up as quick as we could, and he was sent off by
express; and she says to me, 'Mis Kenny, you see how 't is. I've got this
house on my hands till May. There's no time to see to anything, and I've
got no heart to care; but if any one'll take it for the winter, well and
good; and I'll leave the sheets and table-cloths and everything in it,
because it may make a difference, and I don't mind about them nohow. And
if no one does take it, I'll just have to bear the loss,' says she. Poor
soul! she was in a world of trouble, surely."
"Do you know what rent she asks for the house?" said Clover, in whose mind
a vague plan was beginning to take shape.
"Twenty-five a month was what she paid; and she said she'd throw the
furniture in for the rest of the time, just to get rid of the rent."
Clover reflected. Twenty-five dollars a week was what they were paying at
Mrs. Marsh's. Could they take this house and live on the same sum, after
deducting the rent, and perhaps get this good-natured-looking woman to
come in for a certain number of hours and help do the work? She almost
fancied that they could if they kept no regular servant.
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