The Oakley herald. [volume] (Oakley, Idaho) 1908-1961, 1918-04-26
Earning Her
$37.83
BY JANE OSBORN


tOopyrlsnt. 1918, Dy tne Mcclure NeMSpa- |
per Syndicate)
When Stanley Ashton agreed to give |
thirty thousand dollars for the work |
OF the ambulance corps by the student
body Of the college from which he
some dozen years before had taken his
degree, on the condition that the stu
dent body would raise a like amount,
he little knew what a medley of unus-
ual activities he was starting within
the dormitories of that college.
II know it's going to be hard for the
Students" he told the dean of the col
lege when he made the proposal, 'but
the ambulance corps needs sixty thou
sand dollars If their work is to be
worth while. I'm not millionaire,
and l guess 1t Is as hard for me to
get that thirty thousand dollars to-
gether as 1t will be for each of the stu
dents to do his or her share toward
raising the difference"
/ The dean was figuring ON the back
of an envelope as Stanley Ashton was
talking to him.
"Yes," he said, having finished his
little sum in division. "There are 1893
students enrolled this year-about 400
girls and the rest men. That will mean
about $37 S3 student, as l reckon it.
| In my announcement | shall suggest
that each student try to raise that
sum. 1t will give zest to their endeav-
ors If each student knows just what is
expected of him."
SO the announcement was made, and
for the weeks that followed each stu
dent of the college went around more
bent on extracting the sum of $37 S3
from his financial endowments-and
most of the students of this co-educa-
tional institution were not possessed
of an overadequate allowance-than
on securing passing grades in their
classroom work. Dances, athletics,
theatricals-al the usual side interests
of the college-were subservient to
this desperate struggle on the part of
the students, each to earn the allotted
quota. The trouble was they were all
doing it at once. Little efforts to ex-
tract the money from each other by
backing shoes, pressing clothes, darn
ing socks, etc, were rather useless,
since no student had the amount to
pay for such services while each was
saving his funds for the quota. Fudge
was a drug on the market, for who
had money to buy fudge?
Margaret Benton achieved quite an
honor for herself among her friends
Nv ha+ oh rrtn
her Christmas holiday vacation. She
had received n check for $50 from
home to cover the expenses of her triI
and, with her parents sanction, SHE
renounced this pleasure so that she
might thereby save the larger part OF
her quota. There was $17.S3 to be
earned. BY going without fudge sup
plies herself for three weeks she eeked
out her funds till she had but $16.75
to be earned. Then she earned 70 cents
by selling one pair of old rubbers, two
old textbooks, the gold tips from two
outworn fountain pens and last win
ter's hat Thirty cents she saved by
walking downtown and back on three
occasions. There then remained $15.7(
to be earned, and there her fund re
manned.
Her allowance was exhausted ant
there was nothing to save, and every
means of earning money seemed to be
in use already by some of the 1893.
On certain gray day, when she hai
INDUCED herself to the extent OF
using 5 cents carfare to go to collect
the pittance that the old-clothes dealer
was to allow her for her old hat ant
rubbers, she sat crowded in the sur
face car-so crowded, in fact, that she
could not help but hear the converse
ton of two well-overcoated men be
side her.
but what are you going to do about
itf" the younger of the two asked
"Tve done all | could to comply will
the request of the department OF
agriculture. / had al my fields cult
waited on our summer place, and theI
1 couldn't get men to harvest them
l have had to pay So a day for a mar
to repair the hotbed frames, and now
I've had the beds planted to greer
towards keeping the local market sup
piled with green goods. l can't ge
anyone to transplant the seedlings
Did get man for 80 cents an hour
but unless some one watched hin
every minute he soldiered."
Margaret heard the man sitting will
him suggest that it was more salts
factory to contract the work. Then II
didn't matter If the men did soldier.
'But if there aren't any men to dc
the work, what am l to do?"
Margaret had only a vague idea Of
what hotbed looked like, but some
how the task sounded easy. She sal
quietly beside the young man in the
warm overcoat and allowed herself tC
be carried beyond the street where she
would have got of to return to the
dormitory. For several miles more she
rode, until in a dreary country lane OF
the outskirts of the city the man sig
nailed for the car to stop. He alighted
and Margaret 11ighted, too. He turned