Helping Himself

Book Excerpt: ...properly expected to earn something toward the family income, and this Grant could not do while preparing for college. If his uncle could have made up his mind to give his brother a small sum annually to make up for this, all would have been well. Not that this idea had suggested itself to the Rev. John Thorn-ton. He felt grateful for his brother's intentions toward Grant, and had bright hopes of his boy's future. But, in truth, pecuniary troubles affected him less than his wife. She was the manager, and it was for her to contrive and be anxious. After Grant had arranged the matters referred to in the preceding chapter, he told his mother that he proposed to go to Somerset to call on his uncle."No, Grant, I don't object, though I should be sorry to have you lose the chance of an education.""I have a very fair education already, mother. Of course I should like to go to college, but I can't bear to have you and father struggling with poverty....