't buy no more! I declared to goodness when I bought them Sir
Walter Scott books that I wouldn't buy no more, an' I won't. If I buy
this one off of this man, there'll be another, an' another, an' so on
'til kingdom come, an' one everlasting fight with pa for money."

"Couldn't you pay for it with the money you got for those
fire-extinguishers?" asked Mrs. Smith.

"Pa borryed that to pay taxes with, long ago, an' that's the last I'll
ever see of the money," said Miss Sally. "Pa ain't the kind that pays
back. He's a good getter, an' a good keeper, but he's about the poorest
giver I ever did see, if he is my own father. There ain't nothin' in
the world else that would drive me to get married but just the trouble I
have to get money out of pa for anything. I ain't even got a black silk
dress to my name, and there ain't another lady in Kilo but's got one. I
guessed when we moved to town I would have the egg money same as on
the farm, but since pa had his teeth out an' got new ones he won't eat
nothin' but eggs, an' I don't get any egg money. Pa eats so many eggs
I'm ashamed to tell it. I wonder he don't sprout feathers. I don't
believe so many eggs is good for a man. It don't seem natural. That
encyclopedia book don't say anywhere that eatin' too many eggs makes a
man close fisted, does it?"

Mrs. Smith said she could remember nothing to that effect in the book,
and for a minute they walked in silence. Suddenly she looked up and
spoke.

"Miss Sally," she exclaimed, "I know what to do! I will make you a
present of y encyclopedia. I will give it to you, and the next time you
see Mr. Hewlitt you can tell him you have a copy, and then he will leave
you alone!"

That was how it happened that at the next festival Miss Sally did not
run when she saw Eliph' Hewlitt approaching, but stood waiting for
him. He stepped up to her with a smile that was half pleasure and half
excuse.

"I don't want to buy a book," she said quickly. "I've got one. Mrs.
Smith gave me the one she had. So you needn't pester me any more."

"I didn't want to sell you a book," said Eliph' gently, "although I
am glad to learn you have one. No person, whether man, woman or child,
should be without a copy of this work, including, as it does, all the
knowledge of the ages and all the world's wisdom, from A to Z, condensed
into one volume, for ready reference. It is a book that should be on
every parlor table and----"

"Well, I've got one," said Miss Sally,