just what it is I have gone into, and can
picture the daily life quite accurately of
Yours as ever, Mary Ware, late of Lone-Rock,
now Reformer of Riverville."

CHAPTER III

THE SUPREME CALL

That was the last letter which Phil received from Mary for many weeks,
although he wrote regularly to the address she gave of the
boarding-house on the sycamore-shaded street. Several times she sent a
postal with a scribbled line of acknowledgment, but the days were too
full for personal affairs, and at night she was too tired to attend to
her own correspondence, after pounding on the typewriter so many hours.

She had attacked her new duties with all the zeal and force that had
characterized her "snake-killings" on the desert. Habit alone made her
do that, and pride added another motive. She was determined to justify
Madam Chartley's opinion of her. Not being able to write shorthand she
worked overtime to gain extra speed on the typewriter, so that she might
take dictation directly on the machine. Now, all the neatness and system
which had made her housekeeping so perfect in its way, made her a
painstaking and methodical little business woman. Her neatly typed pages
were a joy to Mrs. Blythe. Her system of filing and indexing brought
order out of confusion in the topsy-turvy desk, and she soon had the
various reports which they referred to daily, labelled and arranged in
the different pigeon-holes as conveniently as the spice boxes and cereal
jars had been in the kitchen cabinet at home.

It was not long before Mrs. Blythe began handing letters over to her as
Jack had done, saying briefly, tell them this or thus, and leaving her
to frame the answer in the best style she could. This spurred her on to
still greater effort, and she made up her mind to become so familiar
with every branch of the subject that she could give an intelligent
answer to any question that might be asked. Once she wrote home to Jack:

"I am beginning to see now some of the things that my Desert of Waiting
in Lone-Rock taught me. I couldn't fill this position half so
satisfactorily if I hadn't had the training that you gave me in your
office in all sorts of business forms and details. I am especially
thankful for the letters you made me answer in my own words. Mrs. Blythe
turns over two-thirds of her mail to me now to be answered in that way.
She has had many invitations lately from clubs in neighboring towns,
asking