Patty had no time to look at these before she went to school, so she placed them carefully in her desk, determined to hurry home that afternoon and get her accounts into apple-pie order before her father came home. After school she returned to find a supplementary lot of bills had been left by the postman, and also Mancy presented her with a number of bills which the tradesmen had left that morning. Patty took the whole lot to her desk, and with methodical exactness noted the amounts on the pages of her little books. She and her father had talked the matter over, more or less, and Patty knew just about what Mr. Fairfield expected the bills to amount to. But to her consternation she discovered, as she went along, that each bill was proving to be about twice as large as she had anticipated. "There must be some mistake," she said to herself, "we simply _can't_ have eaten all those groceries. Anybody would think we ran a branch store. And that butcher's bill is big enough for the Central Park menagerie! They must have added it wrong." But a careful verification of the figures proved that they were added right, and Patty's heart began to sink as she looked at the enormous sum-totals. "To think of all that for flowers! Well, papa bought some of them, that's a comfort; but I had no idea I had ordered so many myself. I think bills are perfectly horrid! And here's my dressmaker's bill. Gracious, how Madame LaFayette has gone up in her prices! I believe I'll make my own clothes after this; but the market bills are the worst I don't see how we _could_ have eaten all these things. Mancy must be a dreadful waster, but it isn't fair to blame her; if that's where the trouble is, I ought to have looked after it myself. Hello, Marian, is that you? I didn't hear you come in. Do come here, I'm in the depths of despair!" "What's the matter, Patsie? and what a furious lot of bills! You look like a clearinghouse." "Oh, Marian, it's perfectly fearful! Every bill is two or three times as much as I thought it would be, and I'm so sorry, for I meant to be such a thrifty housekeeper." "Jiminetty Christmas!" exclaimed Marian, looking at some of the papers, "I should think these bills _were_ big! Why, that's more than we pay a month for groceries, and look at the size of our family." "I know it," said Patty hopelessly. "I don't see how it happened." "You are an extravagant little wretch, Patty, there's no doubt about it." "I suppose I am; at least, I suppose I have been, but I'm not going to be any more. I'm going to reform, suddenly and all at once and very thoroughly! Now, you watch me. We're not going to have any more fancy things, no more ice cream from Pacetti's. Why, that caterer's bill is something fearful." "And so you're going to starve poor Uncle Fred?" "No, that wouldn't be fair, would it? The economy ought to fall entirely on me. Well, I've decided to make my own clothes after this, anyway."