hem with a peculiar lilt--it
was his way of being ironical:

"Oh, you don't owe the store anything, Miss Smith--just eleven
dollars and eighty cents."

The woman stood stoically--not a muscle moved in her face, and not
even by the change of an eye did she indicate that such a thing as
the ordinary human emotions of disappointment and fear had a home in
the heart.

"Mother was sick all last month," she said at last in a voice that
came out in the same indifferent, unvarying tone. "I had to
overdraw."

Kingsley gave his eye-glasses another lilt. They said as plainly as
eye-glasses could: "Well, of course, I made her sick." Then he added
abruptly: "We will advance you two dollars this week--an' that will
be all."

"I hoped to get some little thing that she could eat--some relish,"
she began.

"Not our business, Miss Smith--sorry--very sorry--but try to be more
economical. Economy is the great objective haven of life. Emerson
says so. And Browning in a most beautiful line of poetry says the
same thing," he added.

"The way to begin economy is to begin it--Emerson is so helpful to
me--he always comes in at the right time."

"And it's only to be two dollars," she added.

"That's all," and he pushed her the order. She took it, cashed it and
went hurriedly out, her poke bonnet pulled over her face. But there
were hot tears and a sob under her bonnet.

And so it went on for two hours--some drawing nothing, but remaining
to beg for an order on the store to keep them running until next
week.

One man with six children in the mill next came forward and drew
eighteen dollars. He smiled complacently as he drew it and chucked
the silver into his pocket. This gave Jud Carpenter, standing near, a
chance to get in his mill talk.

"I tell you, Joe Hopper," he said, slapping the man on the back,
"that mill is a great thing for the mothers an' fathers of this
little settlement. What 'ud we do if it warn't for our chillun?"

"You're talkin now--" said Joe hopefully.

"It useter be," said Jud, looking around at his crowd, "that the
parents spoiled the kids, but now it is the kids spoilin' the
parents."

His audience met this with smiles and laughter.

"I never did know before," went on Jud, "what that old sayin' really
meant: 'A fool for luck an' a po' man for chillun.'"

Another crackling laugh.

"How much did Joe Hopper's chillun fetch 'im in this week?"

Joe jingled his silver in his pocket and spat importantly