man, and with the capital to start."

"Kate, you can be the meanest," he said.

"I didn't intend to be, in this particular instance," she said. "But
honestly, George, what have I ever seen of you in the way of financial
success in the past that would give me hope for the future?"

"I know it," he said, "but I've never struck exactly the right thing.
This is what I could make a success of, and I would make a good big
one, you bet! Kate, I'll not go to town another night. I'll stop all
that." He drew the flask from his pocket and smashed it against the
closest tree. "And I'll stop all there ever was of that, even to a
glass of beer on a hot day; if you say so, if you'll stand by me this
once more, if I fail this time, I'll never ask you again; honest, I
won't."

"If I had money, I'd try it, keeping the building in my own name and
keeping the books myself; but I've none, and no way to get any, as you
know," she said. "I can see what could be done, but I'm helpless."

"I'M NOT!" said George. "I've got it all worked out. You see I was
doing something useful with my head, if I wasn't always plowing as fast
as you thought I should. If you'll back me, if you'll keep books, if
you'll handle the money until she is paid back, I know Aunt Ollie will
sell enough of this land to build the mill and buy the machinery. She
could keep the house, and orchard, and barn, and a big enough piece,
say forty acres, to live on and keep all of us in grub. She and Mother
could move out here--she said the other day she was tired of town and
getting homesick--and we could go to town to put the children in
school, and be on the job. I won't ever ask you and Mother to live
together again. Kate, will you go in with me? Will you talk to Aunt
Ollie? Will you let me show you, and explain, and prove to you?"

"I won't be a party to anything that would even remotely threaten to
lose Aunt Ollie's money for her," she said.

"She's got nobody on earth but me. It's all mine in the end. Why not
let me have this wonderful chance with it? Kate, will you?" he begged.

"I'll think about it," she conceded. "If I can study out a sure,
honourable way. I'll promise to think. Now go out there, and hunt the
last scrap of that glass; the children may cut their feet in the
morning."

Then Kate went in to bed. If she had looked from her window, she might
have seen George scratching matches and picking pieces of glass from
the grass. When he cam