ver known that he carried, bulged
now from the all too small overall-pocket.

"You can bet I'll pitch hay for her till sundown," he declared, when Lou
had explained the situation to him. He dropped beside the tub the bundle
of egg-soaked clothing which he carried, and added: "It is mighty good
of her to do all this for us, isn't it? I tell you, Lou, the credit side
of the list is going up even if it did have a bit of a jolt this
morning, and you're the biggest item on it."

This speech was wholly unintelligible to the girl, but she bent over the
tub without reply, and Jim went on hurriedly, aware that he had made a
slip of some sort.

"I wonder where all the men of the family are? She can't get any
hands----"

"_There_ are all the men of the family." The woman had reappeared
in time to catch his last remark, and she pointed out toward the two
small toilers with a faint smile. "There was another, their father--my
son--but he died; so we're doin' the best we can by ourselves. But
there's a little bite ready for you on the end of the kitchen-table, and
it's getting cold."

The food tasted good, and the little red cloth beneath the dishes was
clean, but the signs of carefully concealed poverty were everywhere
visible to Jim's eyes, and he suspected another reason for the lack of
farm-hands than scarcity of labor. He hurried through his meal, and went
at once to the hay-field, while Lou, after insisting on clearing the
dishes away, went back to the wash-tub, and their hostess returned to
her own belated ironing.

Upon the girl's usually serene brow there was a frown of perplexity as
she worked, and her thoughts were far afield, for in that backward
glance which she had given from the egg-wagon to the approaching car
just before the crash came she had recognized in its occupants the
quartet who sat in front of her at the circus the previous evening. The
ladies were closely swathed in their veils, but she remembered the
distinctive plaids of their silk coats, and the stout gentleman who sat
between them in the tonneau, with goggles and hat snatched off in the
excitement of the impending smash-up, was unmistakably the one who had
called out "Good work!" when Jim was performing on the horse.

The other gentleman who had made up the quartet was the one who drove
the car, and her quick glance showed her that he was even then trying to
avoid the crash.

The details had been photographed upon her brain with instantaneous