Bad as what she wished to escape had been, it was nothing like this.

She never could live down the movement that went through the class when she inadvertently revealed the fact that she had expected books to be furnished.

Her mother would not secure them; that settled the question.
But the end of misery is never in a hurry to come; before the day was over the superintendent entered the room and explained that pupils from the country were charged a tuition of twenty dollars a year.

That really was the end.

Previously Elnora had canvassed a dozen methods for securing the money for books, ranging all the way from offering to wash the superintendent's dishes to breaking into the bank.