`` Aunt Josephina thought a lot of Mother , too . She used to say she knew there was always a welcome for her at Maple Hollow . It does seem a pity , Sally dear , for your mother 's daughter to send word to Aunt Josephina , per my mother 's son , that there is n't room for her any longer at Maple Hollow . '' `` I shall leave it to Willard , '' said Sara abruptly . `` If he says to let her come , come she shall , even if Dorothy and I have to camp in the barn . '' `` I 'm going to have a prowl around the garret , '' said Ray , apropos of nothing . `` And I shall get the tea ready , '' answered Sara briskly . `` Dorothy will be home from school very soon , and I hear Uncle Joel stirring . Willard wo n't be back till dark , so there is no use waiting for him . '' At twilight Sara decided to walk up the lane and meet Willard . She always liked to meet him thus when he had been away for a whole day . Sara thought there was nobody in the world as good and dear as Willard . It was a dull grey November twilight ; the maples in the hollow were all leafless , and the hawthorn hedge along the lane was sere and frosted ; a little snow had fallen in the afternoon , and lay in broad patches on the brown fields . The world looked very dull and dispirited , and Sara sighed . She could not help thinking of the dark side of things just then . `` Everything is wrong , '' said poor Sara dolefully . `` Willard has to work like a slave , and yet with all his efforts he can barely pay the interest on the mortgage . And Ray ought to go to college . But I do n't see how we can ever manage . To be sure , he wo n't be ready until next fall , but we wo n't have the money then any more than now .
It would take every bit XXXXX a hundred and fifty dollars to fit him out with books and clothes , and pay for board and tuition at the academy .
along around as at from in of on till to