In return he had to retrench. But the retrenchments fell in the place
where the penny, not the dollar, lay.
He practised economy on me. He gave me only ten dollars a week, board
and room free, as cook; and also I was to wait on the diners, as well as
prepare the meals.
Nevertheless the fault for having two jobs at once thrust on me, rested
partly with me: when he asked me if I was able to do both, I fell into a
foolish, boasting mood and said "yes."
MacGregor figured out my menu for me a week ahead, the day he left:
"Anyhow, you'll only last a week," he joked.
The night before the first breakfast I lay awake all night, worrying ...
hadn't I better just sneak away with daylight?... no, I must return to
Mt. Hebron in the fall. Though all I wanted to return for was to show
the school, that, in spite of my spindly legs, I could win my "H" in
track athletics.
I must make good at this job, and save ... my grandmother, who had sent
me money the previous year, I must not call on her again. And I did not
count on my father ... for he was strenuously in the saddle to a grass
widow, the one who had lured him to change boarding houses, and she was
devouring his meagre substance like the Scriptural locust.
* * * * *
That first breakfast was a nightmare. I "practised breakfast" from three
o'clock till six .
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