Once upon a time, there was a girl named Lily. She had just turned eight years old when her Papa got hurt in a mining accident, and her Mama had to quit her job to help Papa get better. Lily had bright blue eyes, and light brown hair, and she wanted to help out her parents any way she could.

  She knew that things cost money, and her parents needed money, so after breakfast every morning she raced out the door to go do chores for the neighbors.

  “Don’t worry, Mama, Papa! I’m going to make enough money for you to retire. Mama can just focus on helping Papa get better!”

  And so, Lily worked.

  She pulled weeds.

  She cleaned houses.

  She changed motor oil.

  She picked up groceries at the market and brought them back.

  Every single job she did, she wore a smile and said thank you when she was done.

  “Gods bless!”

  Bit by bit she saved up money to give to her parents.

  School was out for the summer, so she spent all day doing chores and making money, and then when the sun started setting she would come home to help her Mama make dinner. After dinner she would wash the dishes while her Mama helped Papa with his exercises.

  And at the very end of the day, Lily would kneel down next to her bed and look up at the symbol of the gods she had drawn on her wall as best she could. She said her prayers every single night, because her Mama and Papa had told her that the gods helped good little girls when they needed it.

  Lily lived in a small village, in a small townhouse set in a neat row with many just like it. Almost all the Papas in the village worked in the mine on the edge of town. Every morning they would wake up and walk to work, only returning an hour or two before sunset. The Mamas did most of the work in the village itself: tending to horses and other animals, minding the stores, and mending what needed to be mended.

  One day, after several weeks of doing chores, Mama took Lily to the town hall, where the mayor worked. Lily had learned that in school, but they didn’t see the mayor that day. Instead, they talked to a clerk.

  “Yes, Gertrude, the emancipation form, please.”

  Gertrude, a woman in her thirties, looked at Sally with concern in her eyes.

  “Are you sure? Is Lily…”

  Sally nodded, her lips pressed tightly together.

  Gertrude knew about Bill’s injury, but she hadn’t realized how bad things had gotten for the family. She knew medical treatment was expensive, but Bill’s injury must have been really bad. The form Sally had asked for was for recognizing children as adults, even if they weren’t old enough.

  Basically, this was a financial scheme.

  Sally and Bill had a large debt from Bill’s medical treatment, as well as the rent on their house. Eventually, if they didn’t make the payments, they would go to debtor’s prison. Normally, Lily would go with them.

  But if Lily was emancipated, she wouldn’t have to go.

  And if they transferred all their assets into her name, she’d have enough money to live on until she really grew up, and could take care of herself.

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  Sally filled out the form while Gertrude bent down to talk to Lily.

  “Lily, do you know that this will make you a grown up…?”

  Lily huffed a puff of air through her nose. “I’m already eight years old, you know. And I work and make my own money!”

  Gertrude’s eyes widened while Lily smiled smugly. Lily continued, “I do chores all around the village! If you need anything done, let me know, okay?”

  “Of, of course…”

  Gertrude straightened up and Sally pushed the form to her.

  And with that, Lily was emancipated.

  They stopped at the bank on the way back home, and after checking on her Papa, Lily ran out the door to go do more chores for her neighbors.

  It was a small village, so she had been worried that once she finished all the chores people didn’t want to do, she would run out of work.

  But it turned out, there was a lot of chores out there! The more she did, the more word spread what a good worker she was, and the more work people had for her to do.

  There were some jobs she couldn’t do, of course.

  She couldn’t work in the mine, and she couldn’t work much on the farms. She just wasn’t big and strong enough yet.

  But there was plenty of cleaning, and weeding, and organizing she could do!

  She did her best on every single job, and always smiled, and thanked people when she got paid.

  The dollar bills and coins added up in her drawer at home. After dinner one night at the end of the month, when she knew her Papa usually did the bills, she brought all her saved up money down to the dinner table.

  Her Mama and Papa’s eyes got really big when they saw all the money!

  Sally couldn’t believe her eyes.

  She had heard that Lily was running around doing chores for people, but she thought that was an every-now-and-then kind of thing.

  It was summer, and her daughter was only eight. She was probably just running around and playing, right?

  She looked over at her husband, and he had a grim expression on his face. She caught his eye, and his face softened.

  “Lily,” he said, “have you counted your money yet?”

  “Not yet!” she answered cheerfully.

  “Well, come sit on my lap and let’s count it.”

  So they counted it all together, first the five-dollar bills, then the one-dollar bills, then the coins, starting with the biggest coins and working their way down to the smallest coins.

  “Can you add it all together?” her Papa asked, and Lily carefully lined up on the numbers on a piece of paper. Lily was really good at math, so of course she could do it!

  “Uhm… so it adds up to three hundred and four dollars, and sixty-five cents!”

  “That’s right, good job Lily.” Her Papa smiled softly and patted her gently on the head. Lily smiled. Her Papa must be getting better, because for the last month she hadn’t been able to sit on his lap at all.

  “Dear, your back…”

  “It’s fine, I’m being careful,” Papa replied, being careful not to move much other than his arm.

  “Papa! This is all the money I made this month! Let’s use it to pay all the bills!”

  Lily looked so excited. She was excited! She was going to support the family just like her Mama and Papa did!

  But when she looked up at Papa’s face, he had a small frown.

  “Hmmm…” he groaned. “I’m afraid this isn’t enough, Lily.”

  “Bwuh?!”

  Mama nodded. “That’s right. Our rent alone is one thousand dollars every month…”

  “A thousand?!” Lily exclaimed. That was the biggest number she had learned so far!

  “Bill, I went to the bank and took out the loan…”

  “Good,” Papa nodded. Then he patted Lily’s head again. “Lily, you keep your money. You’ll need it, and we have at least another month in this house. As for after…”

  “Bill!”

  “...well, we can discuss that later. Lily, go fetch my lunchbox.”

  Papa usually took a metal lunchbox with him to the mine, packed with lunch made by Mama in the morning along with breakfast. Lily went and got it, and then he gave it to her.

  “Here, Lily. You can keep your money in this.”

  “But, Papa, when you get better…”

  Papa smiled softly. “That’s gonna be a while, Lily. Broken backs take a long time to heal…”

  “Okay,” Lily said sadly, and she put her money in the lunchbox. Then, she smiled as brightly as she could. “Don’t worry, Papa! Lily will make more money and pay for rent next time!”

  Papa smiled. “Okay, Lily. Do your best.”

  Mama had a small frown on her face.

  Mama and Papa talked about more stuff, but Lily wasn’t listening. Instead, she cleaned up in the living room and the kitchen, and then got ready for bed and put the lunchbox on her nightstand.

  It wasn’t enough money.

  She had worked every day this month, and it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t even close.

  Lily said her usual prayers, thanking the gods for their help, and then, at the end, she broke down.

  “Mr. Gods and Mrs. Goddesses, I need help! I can’t do this! I worked all month and didn’t make enough money to pay for rent! I’m so tired! Please, help me make more money!”

  Up in heaven, above the clouds in a beautiful white marble hall lined with massive columns holding up the stars, the gods and goddesses were huddled up, playing dice.

  In another world, a certain brilliant scientist was spinning in his grave.