not only in her pockets but in every other
possible place, the letter could not be found; and though Mrs. Kaye
assured them that there was probably very little of importance in it,
her children could not help imagining something quite to the contrary;
and to learn the unread message became the great desire of their hearts.

"Well, in any case, we have what he said to you, Hal, about soul growth
and that."

"Humph! Such talk is all well enough, but how is it going to help when
we reach our last dollar? Did you ever think, Amy, seriously think how
we are going to live? Just where our actual bread and butter is to come
from?"

"No. Why, no, not really."

"Then it's high time you did."

CHAPTER XIII.

AMY PAYS A BUSINESS CALL.

At about the same moment, on a "Saturday-half" in November, Amy Kaye and
Gwendolyn Jones left each her own home to visit that of the other. They
met on the slope of "Bareacre" and paused for mutual greetings.

"How do? I was just going up to your house," said Gwendolyn, turning her
back to the wind that just then blew strongly.

"Good afternoon. Were you? And I was going to yours."

"My! How cold it is. Winter'll be here before we know it. Makes a body
think about her clothes. That's why I was coming. I thought, maybe,
you'd like to go shopping with me."

"You're forgetting, I fancy, that I told you I never did that. I
shouldn't know how to shop, nor scarcely what it means," laughed Amy.

"That's what me and ma was saying. You seem such a little girl, yet
'Bony' says you're 'most as old as I am."

"But I don't feel old, do you? I wish I might never grow a day older,
except that if I do I may be more useful to my people."

"Won't you go, then?"

"Maybe, if you will do something for me, too. I'm not on the road to buy
anything, but to sell. I thought that you might know of somebody who
would like a burro. Do you?"

"I'd like one myself, first-rate, only I'm saving for a wheel. I'm
buying it on the instalment plan. I pay a dollar a week, and after I get
my winter things I'll pay more. Do you ride?"

"Nothing so fine as a bicycle; just either Pepita or Balaam."

"It's awful hard to have to walk everywhere, and the good thing about a
wheel is that it don't have to eat."

"And the bad thing about a burro is that it does."

"Are you in earnest? Do you want to sell it?"

"No; I don't _want_ to at all, but I'm going to if I can. Do you know
anybody who really might buy Pepit