Her
hair was disheveled and her hat twisted to one side. The man and woman
stared at her. The knitting needles and a sheet of paper held in their
hands suggested what they had been doing while Clara was getting another
lesson from life. Her aunt's hands trembled and the knitting needles
clicked together. Nothing was said and the confused and angry girl ran up a
stairway to her own room. She locked herself in and knelt on the floor by
the bed. She did not pray. Her association with Kate Chanceller had given
her another outlet for her feelings. Pounding with her fists on the bed
coverings, she swore. "Fools, damned fools, the world is filled with
nothing but a lot of damned fools."
CHAPTER X
Clara Butterworth left Bidwell, Ohio, in September of the year in which
Steve Hunter's plant-setting machine company went into the hands of a
receiver, and in January of the next year that enterprising young man,
together with Tom Butterworth, bought the plant. In March a new company was
organized and at once began making Hugh's corn-cutting machine, a success
from the beginning. The failure of the first company and the sale of the
plant had created a furor in the town. Both Steve and Tom Butterworth
could, however, point to the fact that they had held on to their stock and
lost their money in common with every one else. Tom had indeed sold his
stock because he needed ready money, as he explained, but had shown his
good faith by buying again just before the failure.
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