"See," she pointed out, "you were to make five thousand dollars an hour
for two hundred working hours, beginning on April twenty-second and
ending May thirty-first."

Johnny examined the board with eager interest. It was ruled into tiny
squares, forty blocks long and seven deep.

"I want to frame that when we're through," he said, admiring the
perfect drawing.

"Suppose you lose?" she suggested, smiling to herself at his
unconscious use of the word "we".

"No chance," he stoutly returned. "I have to paste a
five-thousand-dollar bill in each one of those blocks."

"You've kept your paste brush busy," she congratulated him, marveling
anew at how he had done it, as she glanced at the record which she had
herself set down. "I have the little squares crossed off up to two
hundred and sixty-five thousand dollars."

"The money's in Loring's bank," he cheerfully assured her. "That pays
me up to next Tuesday, May second, at two o'clock. This is two o'clock,
Thursday. I have twenty-four working hours to loaf."

"Lazy!" she bantered him. "That isn't loafing time; it's only a safety
margin."

Her eagerness about it pleased Johnny very much. When he had his
million he intended to ask her to marry him; and it was pleasant to
have her, all unaware of his purpose, of course, taking such an acute
interest in this big game.

"If a man plays too safe he goes broke," objected Johnny seriously,
still intent on the diagram, however. "I notice that none of these
Sundays or Saturday afternoons have money in them. According to my plan
I also allowed for two possible holidays; but why are those two special
days left white?"

"Well," hesitated Constance, flushing slightly, "May thirtieth is
Decoration Day; and then I allowed for a possible birthday."

"Birthday?" he repeated, perplexed. "Whose?"

"Oh, anybody's," she hastily assured him. "You can move the date to
suit. You know you said you weren't going to work on Sundays, evenings,
holidays or birthdays."

"I have but one birthday this year, and it comes in the fall," he
answered, laughing; then suddenly a dazzling light blinded him. "It's
the score keeper's!" he guessed.

In spite of all her efforts to prevent it Constance blushed furiously.
"I had intended to give a little party on the nineteenth," she
confessed.

"I'm coming!" he emphatically announced.

Aunt Pattie Boyden swept into the room, and Johnny immediately felt
that he had on tight shoes. He had once made a