and behind that very counter, too. And she certainly can
SELL 'em!" with a reminiscent chuckle.

Mrs. Mullet glared at him. "Yes," she drawled, with sarcasm, "so she
can--to some folks. Look at you, with all that Christmas junk under your
arm! You didn't need to buy that stuff any more'n you needed to fly.
What did you buy it for? Tell me that."

Chris shook his head. "Blessed if I know," he admitted. "I hadn't any
idea of buyin' it, but she and me got to talkin', and she kept showin'
the things to me, and I kept lookin' at 'em and--"

"Yes, and kept lookin' at her, too! Don't talk to ME! There's no fool
like an old fool--and an old man fool is the worst of all."

Her husband, usually meek and long-suffering under wifely discipline,
evinced unwonted spirit.

"Well, I tell you this, Becky," he said. "Fur's I can see, Mary-'Gusta's
all right. She's as pretty as a picture, to begin with; she's got money
of her own to spend; and she's been away among folks that have got a lot
more. All them things together are enough to spoil 'most any girl, but
they haven't spoiled her. She's come home here not a mite stuck-up, not
flirty nor silly nor top-lofty, but just as sensible and capable and
common-folksy as ever she was, and that's sayin' somethin'. If our Rena
turns out to be the girl Mary-'Gusta Lathrop is I WILL be proud of her,
and don't you forget it!"

Which terminated conversation in the Mullet family for that evening.

But if the few, like Mrs. Mullet, were inclined to criticize, the many,
like her husband, united in declaring Mary to be "all right." And her
rearranging and displaying of the Christmas goods helped her and her
uncles to dispose of them. In fact, for the three days before Christmas
it became necessary to call in the services of Annabel as assistant
saleslady. The store was crowded, particularly in the evenings, and
Zoeth and Captain Shad experienced for the first time in months the
sensation of being the heads of a prosperous business.

"Looks good to see so many young folks in here, don't it, Zoeth?"
observed the Captain. "And not only girls, but fellers, too. Don't know
when I've seen so many young fellers in here. Who's that young squirt
Mary-'Gusta's waitin' on now? The one with the whittled-in back to his
overcoat. Say, Solomon in all his glory wasn't arrayed like one of him!
Must be some city feller, eh? Nobody I know."

Zoeth looked at his niece and her customer.

"Humph!" he said. "Guess y