n offspring in her own way, but Judith would rout her out and
force her to comply to community housekeeping in the poultry-house.

The Knights' motto might have been: "Lazy Faire" and the Buck's "'Nuff
Said," as a wag at Ryeville had declared, but such mottoes did not fit
Miss Judith. Nothing must be left as it was unless it was already
exactly right and enough was not said until she had spoken her mind
freely and fearlessly. Everything about this girl was free and
fearless--her walk, the way she held her head, her unflinching hazel
eyes and ready, ringing laugh. Even her red gold hair demanded freedom
and refused to stay confined in coil, braid or net.

"I'm sure I don't know where you came from," Mrs. Buck drawled.
"You're so energetic and wasteful like. Of course my folks were never
ones to sit still and be taken care of like the Bucks," and then her
mild eyes would snap a bit, "but the Knights believed in saving."

"Even energy?" asked Judith saucily.

"Well, there isn't any use in wasting even energy. My father used to
say that saving was the keynote of life as well as religion. I reckon
you must be a throw back to my mother's grandfather, who was a Norse
sailor, and reckless and wasteful and red-headed."

"Maybe so! At any rate I'm going to plough some guano into these
acres, even though I can't plough the seas like my worthy grandpap,
Sven Thorwald Woden, or whatever his name was. Just look at our wheat,
Mother! It isn't fit to feed chickens with because our land is so
poor. I'm tired of this eternal saving and no making. There is no
reason why our yield shouldn't be as great per acre as Buck Hill, but
we don't get half as much as they do. I've got to make a lot of money
this summer so as to buy bags and bags of fertilizer. I've got a new
scheme."

"I'll be bound you have," sighed Mrs. Buck.

"But you'll have to help me by making cakes and pies and things and
peeling potatoes."

"All right, just so you don't hurry me! I can't be hurried."

"What a nice mother you are to say all right without even asking what
it is."

"There wasn't any use in wasting my breath asking, because I knew
you'd tell me without asking."

"Well, this is it: I'm going to feed the motormen and conductors. I
got the idea yesterday when I was coming up from Louisville by
trolley, when I saw the poor fellows eating such miserable lunches out
of tin buckets with everything hot that ought to be cold and cold that
ought to be hot. I