ask you what you intended to do with it when _you_ bought
it?" Dixie asked. "You haven't any right to ask. But I'll tell you _one_
thing. I'm not going to turn it into a corn-crib, though it would make a
dandy, and one that no nigger could steal from. I'm buying it to sell
for at least twice as much as I've paid for it, and I want you to watch
me. I've been tickled mighty nigh to death over your late deals, and I
want to amuse you. I know you'd like to see me make some money, and I'm
going to do it as sure as I'm knee-high to a duck."

When she had gone Henley and Cahews stood in the doorway disconsolately
staring after her as she walked briskly down the street.

"You see, Jim, I'm afraid I'm responsible for it," the storekeeper said,
with a frown. "She's got a long head for a woman in most matters, but
she's had it turned by watching this little game of mine. It is the
first time I've ever seen her fly off the handle at all. As a rule she's
very cautious, but, Lord, Lord, the idea of paying twenty-five dollars
for that thing! Why, if it gets out she'll be the laughing-stock of the
town."

CHAPTER XV

The next morning when Henley arrived at the store, Cahews, who with a
face drawn long was standing at the front, pointed mutely at the lion's
cage. Henley looked and groaned. It bore a pasteboard placard, and the
words, in big, irregular capitals:

FOR SALE. APPLY TO DIXIE HART.

"She come in here yesterday evening after you'd gone," Cahews explained,
"and borrowed my marking-pot and brush. Then she had me get her the
pasteboard, and after she had painted the sign she took the nail-box and
hammer and went over there and tacked it up. A crowd of school-boys was
watching, and raised a laugh, but she come away without paying any
attention to them. I tried to get her to reason a little, and told her
the money was there in the drawer waiting for her to change her mind,
but she said she knowed exactly what she was about, and if I'd lie low I
might learn a trick or two in business methods."

"She's off--she's away off!" Henley sighed. "And I'm plumb sorry, for
she is, in many other ways, as quick as a steel trap and bright as a new
dollar."

One morning, two days later, as the storekeeper was at his desk in the
rear writing letters, his attention was called by a keen whistle from
Cahews, who stood in the front-door wildly signalling him to approach.
And going to the clerk, who was now on the front porch staring