udly away.

Sister Rufa turned to the others: "Nevertheless, you must do as I do,
for I don't lose a single day and I keep my accounts well. I don't
want to cheat or be cheated."

"Well, what do you do?" asked Juana.

"You must imitate what I do. For example, suppose I earn a year
of indulgence: I set it down in my account-book and say, 'Most
Blessed Father and Lord St. Dominic, please see if there is anybody
in purgatory who needs exactly a year--neither a day more nor a day
less.' Then I play heads and tails: if it comes heads, no; if tails,
yes. Let's suppose that it comes tails, then I write down _paid_; if it
comes heads, then I keep the indulgence. In this way I arrange groups
of a hundred years each, of which I keep a careful account. It's a pity
that we can't do with them as with money--put them out at interest,
for in that way we should be able to save more souls. Believe me,
and do as I do."

"Well, I do it a better way," remarked Sister Sipa.

"What? Better?" demanded the astonished Rufa. "That can't be! My
system can't be improved upon!"

"Listen a moment and you'll be convinced, Sister," said old Sipa in
a tone of vexation.

"How is it? Let's hear!" exclaimed the others.

After coughing ceremoniously the old woman began with great care:
"You know very well that by saying the _Bendita sea tu pureza_ and
the _Senor mio Jesucristo, Padre dulcisimo por el gozo_, ten years
are gained for each letter--"

"Twenty!" "No, less!" "Five!" interrupted several voices.

"A few years more or less make no difference. Now, when a servant
breaks a plate, a glass, or a cup, I make him pick up the pieces;
and for every scrap, even the very smallest, he has to recite for
me one of those prayers. The indulgences that I earn in this way
I devote to the souls. Every one in my house, except the cats,
understands this system."

"But those indulgences are earned by the servants and not by you,
Sister Sipa," objected Rufa.

"And my cups and plates, who pays for them? The servants are glad to
pay for them in that way and it suits me also. I never resort to blows,
only sometimes a pinch, or a whack on the head."

"I'm going to do as you do!" "I'll do the same!" "And I!" exclaimed
the women.

"But suppose the plate is only broken into two or three pieces,
then you earn very few," observed the obstinate Rufa.

"_Aba!_" answered old Sipa. "I make them recite the prayers
anyhow. Then I glue the pieces together again and