ry it this way. I'd like to look at it going home."

The girl passed the rose to Jinnie.

"It smells nice, too," she commented.

"Yes," assented Jinnie, delightedly, taking a whiff.

Then she went on to the meat market to buy the small amount of meat
required for the three of them.

One of the men grinned at her from the back of the store, calling,
"Hello, kid!" and Maudlin Bates, swinging idly on a stool, shouted,
"What's wanted now, Jinnie?" and still another man came forward with
the question, "Where'd you get the flower, lass?"

"Bought it," replied Jinnie, leaning against the counter. "I got it
next door for the cobbler. He's lame and can't get out."

The market man turned to wait upon her.

"Five cents' worth of chopped meat," ordered Jinnie, "and four
sausages."

"Ain't you afraid you'll overload your stomachs over there at the
cobbler's shop?" laughed one of the men. "I'll tell you what I'll do,
Jinnie ... Do you see that ring of sausage hangin' on that hook?"

The girl nodded wonderingly, looking sidewise at Maudlin.

"Well, if you'll give us a dance, a good one, mind you, still keepin'
the wood on your back, I'll buy you the hull string. It'll last a week
the way you folks eat meat."

Jinnie's face reddened painfully, but the words appealed to her
money-earning spirit, and with a curious sensation she glanced around.
Could she dance, with the wondering, laughing, admiring gaze of the
men upon her? And Maudlin, too! How she detested his lustful, doltish
eyes!

She straightened her shoulders, considering. The wood was heavy, and
the strap, bound tightly about her chest and arms, made her terribly
tired. But a whole string of sausage was a temptation she could not
withstand. In her fertile imagination she could see Lafe nod his
approbation, and Peggy joyously frying her earnings in the pan. She
might even get three more kisses when no one was looking.

"I don't know what to dance," she said presently, studying the rose in
her confusion.

"Oh, just anything," encouraged the man on the stool. "I'll whistle a
tune."

"Hand her the sausage, butcher;" sniggered Maudlin, "then she'll be
sure of it. The feel of it'll make her dance better."

The speaker grinned as the butcher took the string from the hook.
Jinnie slipped the stem of the cobbler's rose between her white teeth,
grasped the sausage in one hand and gripped the shortwood strap with
the other. Then the man started a rollicking whistle, a