nd throat. She crocheted yards
of laces for her underwear, and made Battenberg in abundance for her
table and for the bureau. A great achievement, that aroused Billy's
applause, was an Afghan for the bed. She even ventured a rag carpet,
which, the women's magazines informed her, had newly returned into
fashion. As a matter of course she hemstitched the best table linen and
bed linen they could afford.

As the happy months went by she was never idle. Nor was Billy forgotten.
When the cold weather came on she knitted him wristlets, which he always
religiously wore from the house and pocketed immediately thereafter. The
two sweaters she made for him, however, received a better fate, as did
the slippers which she insisted on his slipping into, on the evenings
they remained at home.

The hard practical wisdom of Mercedes Higgins proved of immense help,
for Saxon strove with a fervor almost religious to have everything of
the best and at the same time to be saving. Here she faced the financial
and economic problem of keeping house in a society where the cost of
living rose faster than the wages of industry. And here the old woman
taught her the science of marketing so thoroughly that she made a dollar
of Billy's go half as far again as the wives of the neighborhood made
the dollars of their men go.

Invariably, on Saturday night, Billy poured his total wages into her
lap. He never asked for an accounting of what she did with it, though
he continually reiterated that he had never fed so well in his life. And
always, the wages still untouched in her lap, she had him take out what
he estimated he would need for spending money for the week to come.
Not only did she bid him take plenty but she insisted on his taking any
amount extra that he might desire at any time through the week. And,
further, she insisted he should not tell her what it was for.

"You've always had money in your pocket," she reminded him, "and there's
no reason marriage should change that. If it did, I'd wish I'd never
married you. Oh, I know about men when they get together. First one
treats and then another, and it takes money. Now if you can't treat just
as freely as the rest of them, why I know you so well that I know you'd
stay away from them. And that wouldn't be right... to you, I mean. I
want you to be together with men. It's good for a man."

And Billy buried her in his arms and swore she was the greatest little
bit of woman that ever came down th