give herself the airs of a happy woman over the calf-like
attentions of this clumsy boy of nineteen was more than absurd, it was
painful. "Sally--you couldn't! Why, you oughtn't even to be FRIENDS
with Joe Hawkes!" she stammered. "He gets--I suppose he gets twenty
dollars a month."

"On, no; more than that!" Sally said, brushing her fine, silky,
lifeless hair. "He gets twenty-five from the express company, and when
he meets the trains for Beetman he gets half he makes."

Martie stood astounded at her manner. That one of the Monroe girls
should be talking thus of Joe Hawkes! What mattered it to Sarah Price
Monroe how much Joe Hawkes made, or how? Joe Hawkes--Grace's
insignificant younger brother! Sally saw her consternation.

"Now listen, Mart, and don't have a fit," she said, laughing. "I'm not
any crazier over Joe than you are. I know what Pa would say. I'm not
likely to marry any one on thirty dollars a month, anyway. But listen,
Joe has always liked me terribly--"

"I never knew it!" Martie exclaimed.

"No; well, neither did I. But last year when he broke his leg I used to
go in and see him with Grace, and one day she left the room for a
while, and he sort of--broke out--"

"The GALL!" ejaculated Martie.

"Oh, no, Mart--he didn't mean it that way. Really he didn't. He just
wanted--to hold my hand, you know--and that. And he never thinks of
money, or getting married. And, Mart, he's so GRATEFUL, you know, for
just a moment's meeting, or if I smile at him, going out of church--"

"I should think he might be!" Martie interpolated in fine scorn.

"Yes, I know how you feel, Martie," Sally went on eagerly, "and that's
true, of course. I feel that way myself. But you don't know how
miserable he makes himself about it. And does it seem wrong to you,
Mart, for me just to be kind to him? I tell him--I was telling him this
afternoon--that some day he'll meet some nice sweet girl younger than
he, and that he'll be making more money then--you know--"

Her voice faltered. She looked wistfully at her sister.

"But I can't see why you let a big dummy like that talk to you at all!"
Martie said impatiently after a short silence. "What do you care what
he thinks? He's got a lot of nerve to DARE to talk to you that way.
I--well, I think Pa would be wild!"

"Oh, of course he would," Sally agreed in a troubled voice. "And I know
how you feel, Martie, with Joe's aunt working for the Parkers, and
all," she added. "I'll--I'll s