he
valve with great attention.

"Why, I thought this eighty was already mortgaged!" Mrs. Hunter
exclaimed.

"Well, it is," John replied uneasily, "but I've got to raise the interest
before I can get that bunch of shoats ready to sell, and I've got to do it
that way."

He did not look at either of the two women, but kept himself very busy
about the rod and sucker he was manipulating.

Mrs. Hunter seldom remarked upon anything that was done about the farm,
but this was surprising news. _A second mortgage_ on part of the land! She
had just opened her mouth to speak, when she happened to glance across at
her daughter-in-law. Elizabeth's face was white. Something in it implored
Mrs. Hunter to go away, to leave them to have the matter out together, and
the older woman took her cue from it and went with a haste which caused
her son to look up from the piston with which he fumbled.

"She's gone to the house; I motioned to her to go," Elizabeth announced.
"She don't know much about mortgages, but she knows this won't do. You
told me last week that the hogs would be ready in time. My soul alive,
John! do you realize what you are doing? This is the home-eighty! What's
happened to the hogs?"

"Say, look here! If I want to mortgage this eighty, I'm going to do it.
Those hogs are just where it pays to feed them. If I sell now, I'll lose
half the profits."

John got up and faced her ready to fight, if fight he must on this
question. He had chosen an opportune time to tell it, but he meant to do
as he wished about those hogs and the land and whatever else they
possessed. He hated to open a discussion, but he did not hate to continue
one after he had made the plunge. He had feasible reasons for all that he
did.

Elizabeth saw that he meant to insist and she resented the deception he
had practised in securing this loan without telling her, but the danger
was so great that she could not afford to let her feelings blind her, nor
to put the thing in a bad light by seeming to wrangle about it. She looked
at him steadily, so steadily, in fact, that John was disconcerted. The
work in hand gave excuse for withdrawing his eyes and Elizabeth watched
him arrange the knot of the rope so that they could lower the pipe back
into the well. The girl did not begin to speak at once: she marshalled her
forces and considered what manner of argument she would put forth. She
knew that every piece of land they possessed except the Mitchell County
p