y they were
circulated about the table. Mary poured the tea from a big granite
pot at her elbow, and whenever a shortage of food threatened Beulah
rose from her place and refilled plate or platter. There was no talk
for the first few minutes, only the sound of knife and fork plied
vigorously and interchangeably by father and son, and with some
regard for convention by the other members of the family. John Harris
had long ago recognized the truth that the destiny of food was the
mouth, and whether conveyed on knife or fork made little difference.
Mary, too, had found a carelessness of little details both of manner
and speech coming over her, as her occasional "ain't" betrayed, but
since Jim had joined their table she had been on her guard. Jim
seldom said anything, but always that quiet smile lay like a mask
over his real emotions.

When the first insistent demands of appetite had been appeased,
Harris, resting both elbows on the table, with knife and fork trained
on opposite corners of the ceiling, straightened himself somewhat and
remarked:

"Allan an' me's goin' to town to-night; anything you want from
Sempter's store, Mary?"

"That lets me in for the cows," said Beulah. "You were in town night
before last, too, and it was half-past nine before I got through
milking."

"Oh, well, Jim was away that night," said Allan.

"Jim has enough to do, without milking cows after hours," returned
the girl. "What do you want to go to town for again to-night,
anyway?"

"Got to get more coal," said Harris. "We'll take two teams, an' it'll
be late when we get back."

"Try and not be too late," said the mother, quietly. "You have to be
at work so early in the morning, you know."

"I think it's all nonsense, this day-an'-night work," persisted
Beulah. "Is there never going to be any let-up to it?"

"Beulah, you forget yourself," said her father, "If you'd more to do
you'd have less lime to fret about it. Your mother did more work in
one summer than you have in all your life, an' she's doin' more yet."

"Oh, Beulah's a good help," interposed Mary. "I hope she never has to
work like I did."

"I guess the work never hurt us," said Harris, helping himself to
preserved strawberries. "Just the same, I'm glad to see you gettin'
it a bit easier. But this younger generation--it beats me what we're
comin' to. Thinkin' about nothin' but fun and gaddin' to town every
night or two. And clo'es--Beulah here's got more clo'es than there