e highest.
Another thing: I have my special customers. They pay me ten cents a
dozen more than the market price, because my specialty is one-day eggs."

Here she chanced to glance at Billy, and guessed that he was still
wrestling with his problem.

"Same old thing?" she queried.

He nodded. "Same old thing. If every farmer delivered day-old eggs,
there wouldn't be no ten cents higher 'n the top price. They'd be no
better off than they was before."

"But the eggs would be one-day eggs, all the eggs would be one-day eggs,
you mustn't forget that," Mrs. Mortimer pointed out.

"But that don't butter no toast for my wife an' me," he objected. "An'
that's what I've been tryin' to get the hang of, an' now I got it. You
talk about theory an' fact. Ten cents higher than top price is a theory
to Saxon an' me. The fact is, we ain't got no eggs, no chickens, an' no
land for the chickens to run an' lay eggs on."

Their hostess nodded sympathetically.

"An' there's something else about this outfit of yourn that I don't get
the hang of," he pursued. "I can't just put my finger on it, but it's
there all right."

They were shown over the cattery, the piggery, the milkers, and the
kennelry, as Mrs. Mortimer called her live stock departments. None
was large. All were moneymakers, she assured them, and rattled off her
profits glibly. She took their breaths away by the prices given and
received for pedigreed Persians, pedigreed Ohio Improved Chesters,
pedigreed Scotch collies, and pedigreed Jerseys. For the milk of the
last she also had a special private market, receiving five cents more a
quart than was fetched by the best dairy milk. Billy was quick to point
out the difference between the look of her orchard and the look of the
orchard they had inspected the previous afternoon, and Mrs. Mortimer
showed him scores of other differences, many of which he was compelled
to accept on faith.

Then she told them of another industry, her home-made jams and jellies,
always contracted for in advance, and at prices dizzyingly beyond the
regular market. They sat in comfortable rattan chairs on the veranda,
while she told the story of how she had drummed up the jam and jelly
trade, dealing only with the one best restaurant and one best club
in San Jose. To the proprietor and the steward she had gone with her
samples, in long discussions beaten down their opposition, overcome
their reluctance, and persuaded the proprietor, in particular, to m