Fairmount Hotel an' a few little concerns like it. An' why ain't you?
Because your pa wasn't smart? No. His mind was like a steel trap. It's
because he was filled to burstin' an' spillin' over with the spirit of
the times; because he was full of fire an' vinegar an' couldn't set down
in one place. That's all the difference between you an' the young women
right now in the Flood and Crocker families. Your father didn't catch
rheumatism at the right time, that's all."

Saxon sighed, then smiled.

"Just the same, I've got them beaten," she said. "The Miss Floods and
Miss Crockers can't marry prize-fighters, and I did."

Tom looked at her, taken aback for the moment, with admiration, slowly
at first, growing in his face.

"Well, all I got to say," he enunciated solemnly, "is that Billy's so
lucky he don't know how lucky he is."

Not until Doctor Hentley gave the word did the splints come off Billy's
arms, and Saxon insisted upon an additional two weeks' delay so that no
risk would be run. These two weeks would complete another month's rent,
and the landlord had agreed to wait payment for the last two months
until Billy was on his feet again.

Salinger's awaited the day set by Saxon for taking back their furniture.
Also, they had returned to Billy seventy-five dollars.

"The rest you've paid will be rent," the collector told Saxon. "And the
furniture's second hand now, too. The deal will be a loss to Salinger's'
and they didn't have to do it, either; you know that. So just remember
they've been pretty square with you, and if you start over again don't
forget them."

Out of this sum, and out of what was realized from Saxon's pretties,
they were able to pay all their small bills and yet have a few dollars
remaining in pocket.

"I hate owin' things worse 'n poison," Billy said to Saxon. "An' now we
don't owe a soul in this world except the landlord an' Doc Hentley."

"And neither of them can afford to wait longer than they have to," she
said.

"And they won't," Billy answered quietly.

She smiled her approval, for she shared with Billy his horror of debt,
just as both shared it with that early tide of pioneers with a Puritan
ethic, which had settled the West.

Saxon timed her opportunity when Billy was out of the house to pack the
chest of drawers which had crossed the Atlantic by sailing ship and the
Plains by ox team. She kissed the bullet hole in it, made in the fight
at Little Meadow, as she kissed her fa