; me. If any barber is good enough to shave your neck, and then I
am, too."

Billy moaned and groaned in the abjectness of humility and surrender,
and let her have her way.

"There, and a good job," she informed him when she had finished. "As
easy as falling off a log. And besides, it means twenty-six dollars a
year. And you'll buy the crib, the baby buggy, the pinning blankets, and
lots and lots of things with it. Now sit still a minute longer."

She rinsed and dried the back of his neck and dusted it with talcum
powder.

"You're as sweet as a clean little baby, Billy Boy."

The unexpected and lingering impact of her lips on the back of his neck
made him writhe with mingled feelings not all unpleasant.

Two days later, though vowing in the intervening time to have nothing
further to do with the instrument of the devil, he permitted Saxon to
assist him to a second shave. This time it went easier.

"It ain't so bad," he admitted. "I'm gettin' the hang of it. It's all
in the regulating. You can shave as close as you want an' no more close
than you want. Barbers can't do that. Every once an' awhile they get my
face sore."

The third shave was an unqualified success, and the culminating bliss
was reached when Saxon presented him with a bottle of witch hazel. After
that he began active proselyting. He could not wait a visit from Bert,
but carried the paraphernalia to the latter's house to demonstrate.

"We've ben boobs all these years, Bert, runnin' the chances of barber's
itch an' everything. Look at this, eh? See her take hold. Smooth as
silk. Just as easy.... There! Six minutes by the clock. Can you beat it?
When I get my hand in, I can do it in three. It works in the dark. It
works under water. You couldn't cut yourself if you tried. And it saves
twenty-six dollars a year. Saxon figured it out, and she's a wonder, I
tell you."

CHAPTER VI

The trafficking between Saxon and Mercedes increased. The latter
commanded a ready market for all the fine work Saxon could supply, while
Saxon was eager and happy in the work. The expected babe and the cut in
Billy's wages had caused her to regard the economic phase of existence
more seriously than ever. Too little money was being laid away in the
bank, and her conscience pricked her as she considered how much she
was laying out on the pretty necessaries for the household and herself.
Also, for the first time in her life she was spending another's
earnings. Since a y