In those days, the good times so soon to follow were not yet at hand, and the McKinley family had its own struggles to make both ends meet, although they were not as poor as many around them. But as William McKinley saw how hard his parents and his brothers and sisters worked, and realized that he was bringing no money home, his conscience smote him.
"Perhaps I had better give up law and go to work," he said to his sister Annie.
"No, no, Will, I won't hear of it," she replied. "Now you have started, you must finish."
"But if I want to pass, I've got to go to the law school, and that will take a good deal of money."
"I know it."
"I haven't a dollar. What I got out of the army I gave to mother."
"Yes, and she has some of it saved still, and I have some, too, that I have saved from my salary," answered his sister, who was still teaching school. "You shall use every cent of that, if it is needed."
"But it doesn't seem right," insisted the young law student.
