for a family of four?" asked Migwan.

"About five bushels," answered Mrs. Brewster.

"All right," said Migwan to the man; "bring five bushels over to this
address." The potatoes were duly deposited in the Gardiner cellar,
without asking the advice of Mrs. Gardiner, which was the only safe way
of getting things done, for had she been consulted she would surely have
wanted to wait a while, and then would have kept putting it off until it
was too late. It was the same way with flour and sugar. Migwan found
that her mother had been buying these in small quantities at an
exorbitant price, and calmly took matters into her own hands, ordering a
whole barrel of flour, because there was more in a barrel even than in
four sacks. A certain large store was offering a liberal discount that
week on fifty pounds of sugar, and Migwan took advantage of this sale
also.

Then she had a terrified counting up. Those three items, potatoes, flour
and sugar, had used up every cent of that week's income, leaving nothing
at all for running expenses. All other supplies would have to be bought
on credit. Migwan made a careful estimate of the necessary expenses for
the coming week, and pare down as she might, the sum was nearly fifteen
dollars. The loss of the rent money was making itself keenly felt.
"Mother," she said quietly, looking up from her account book, "we can't
live on fifty-five dollars a month. We must rent the house again
immediately."

Mrs. Gardiner made a gesture of despair. "The sign has been up nearly a
month, and if people don't make inquiries I can't help it."

"Have you been in the house since the last people moved out?" asked
Migwan.

"No," said Mrs. Gardiner; "what good would that do? I haven't the time
to go all the way over to the East Side to look at that old house.
People know it's for rent, and if they want it they'll take it without
my sitting over there waiting for them."

Nevertheless, Migwan made the long trip the very next day after school
to look at the property. "It's no wonder no one has been making
inquiries for it," she said when she returned. "The 'For Rent' sign was
gone and I found it later when I was going back up the street. Some boys
had used it to make the end piece of a wagon. Then, the plumbing is bad
and the cellar is flooded, and the water will not run off in the kitchen
sink. These must have been the repairs the old tenants wanted made when
you told them you had no money to fix the house, an