to spend, which I had earned making collections for Dad; but it wasn't any great amount, and I knew about what I wanted to do with it. Yet still I knew that this thing was going to stick to me until I got it decided. I couldn't pitch it out if I wanted to, until I was sure that it was no good, and I couldn't take it in for keeps until I had given it a fair going over; and I saw that I couldn't do that without the book. I knew that Bess used hers so much that it wouldn't be right to ask to borrow it. I could see that I'd got to come up against the thing some time, and I'm for doing as soon as possible anything that's standing looking at you and saying "Come on." Besides, I wanted to read the book.
"I don't know," I said, "I'll see about it, but I suppose I'll have to get it; for I can never leave things on the shelf long without their fermenting and getting the whole room mussed up."
One evening we went to a prayer-meeting at the Christian Science church. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to go or not, but decided that as long as Bess wanted to, I might as well, and it would give me some more samples for the shelf in my store-room,—and I was glad I went.
