to keep
herself occupied. There was less opportunity for disagreement if the child
were still while his father talked.

"If this rain'd only get busy we'd have a crop of millet yet," John began.
"Corn's going to be mighty high and scarce this fall."

Elizabeth did not reply; something in the air warned her to let John do
the talking. She had ceased to enter into conversation with him unless
something vital made it necessary to speak. The vital thing was not long
in forthcoming. The whimsical weather made him depressed and kept his mind
on the gloomy crop outlook.

"Confound this beastly drizzle! If it'd only get down to business and rain
we'd pull out yet. There'll be corn to buy for the cattle and the very
devil to pay everywhere. I've got to lengthen out the sheds over those
feeders--it hurried the cattle to get around them last winter--and here's
all these extra expenses lately. There's no way out of it--we've got to
put a mortgage on that west eighty. I'll take up the horse note in that
case, and Johnson's offering that quarter section so cheap that I think
I'll just make the loan big enough to cover the first payment and take it
in. We'll never get it as cheap again."

Elizabeth's eyes were wide open now, but she considered a moment before
she began to speak.

"We can't do that," she said slowly at last. "We're out of debt, except
your personal note for the five hundred and the one for the team. It won't
do to mortgage again."

"But we'll have to mortgage, with the crop short, and all those cattle!"
he exclaimed.

"Sell a part of them as grass cattle, and use the money to buy corn for
the rest," she advised.

"Grass cattle are soft and don't weigh down like corn-fed steers. It would
be sheer waste," John insisted.

Elizabeth understood that right now they were to test their strength. She
thought it over carefully, not speaking till she had decided what to say.
The old path of mortgages and interest meant the old agony of dread of
pay-day and the heart eaten out of every day of their existence, and yet
she was careful not to rush into discussion. Her voice became more quiet
as she felt her way in the debate.

"You are right as far as you go, grass cattle do not sell for as much,
but, on the other hand, a loan means interest, and there is always a
chance of the loss of a steer or two and then the profit is gone and you
have your mortgage left. Luther said yesterday that they had black-leg
over north of h