Do you get anything out of it for accidents ?' Not a penny.
'Anything at New Year's time ?' Not so much as a goose.
'Is there any one mortal thing you get free out of that club ?' There was not one mortal thing.
'And thirty pounds is what you pay for this ?' If the committee elected me.
'How many are in the committee ?' About a dozen, I thought.
'A dozen! Ay, ay, that makes two pound ten apiece.' When I was elected I thought it wisdom to send my sister upstairs with the news.

My mother was ironing, and made no comment, unless with the iron, which I could hear rattling more violently in its box.

Presently I heard her laughing--at me undoubtedly, but she had recovered control over her face before she came downstairs to congratulate me sarcastically.
This was grand news, she said without a twinkle, and I must write and thank the committee, the noble critturs.

I saw behind her mask, and maintained a dignified silence, but she would have another shot at me.
'And tell them,' she said from the door, 'you were doubtful of being elected, but your auld mother had aye a mighty confidence they would snick you in.' I heard her laughing softly as she went up the stair, but though I had provided her with a joke I knew she was burning to tell the committee what she thought of them.
Money, you see, meant so much to her, though even at her poorest she was the most cheerful giver.

In the old days, when the article arrived, she did not read it at once, she first counted the lines to discover what we should get for it--she and the daughter who was so dear to her had calculated the payment per line, and I remember once overhearing a discussion between them about whether that sub-title meant another sixpence.