No, it couldn't be done.

He would consider the matter settled.

And yet there was his mother, working day and night, and he, her only son, not helping.

There was his father, growing weaker every day, coughing harder every night; long ago they had given up the hope that the cough would ever leave him.

There was Kitty, who ought to be in school, but could not because her mother _must_ have the little help which she could give.