ed salmon and mackerel.'

'Mercy, it's hot!' Lena yawned. She was supine under a little oak,
resting after the fury of her elder-hunting, and had taken off the
high-heeled slippers she had been silly enough to wear. 'Come here, Jim.
You never got the sand out of your hair.' She began to draw her fingers
slowly through my hair.

Antonia pushed her away. 'You'll never get it out like that,' she said
sharply. She gave my head a rough touzling and finished me off with
something like a box on the ear. 'Lena, you oughtn't to try to wear
those slippers any more. They're too small for your feet. You'd better
give them to me for Yulka.'

'All right,' said Lena good-naturedly, tucking her white stockings under
her skirt. 'You get all Yulka's things, don't you? I wish father didn't
have such bad luck with his farm machinery; then I could buy more things
for my sisters. I'm going to get Mary a new coat this fall, if the sulky
plough's never paid for!'

Tiny asked her why she didn't wait until after Christmas, when coats
would be cheaper. 'What do you think of poor me?' she added; 'with six
at home, younger than I am? And they all think I'm rich, because when I
go back to the country I'm dressed so fine!' She shrugged her shoulders.
'But, you know, my weakness is playthings. I like to buy them playthings
better than what they need.'

'I know how that is,' said Anna. 'When we first came here, and I was
little, we were too poor to buy toys. I never got over the loss of a
doll somebody gave me before we left Norway. A boy on the boat broke her
and I still hate him for it.'

'I guess after you got here you had plenty of live dolls to nurse, like
me!' Lena remarked cynically.

'Yes, the babies came along pretty fast, to be sure. But I never minded.
I was fond of them all. The youngest one, that we didn't any of us want,
is the one we love best now.'

Lena sighed. 'Oh, the babies are all right; if only they don't come in
winter. Ours nearly always did. I don't see how mother stood it. I tell
you what, girls'--she sat up with sudden energy--'I'm going to get my
mother out of that old sod house where she's lived so many years. The
men will never do it. Johnnie, that's my oldest brother, he's wanting to
get married now, and build a house for his girl instead of his mother.
Mrs. Thomas says she thinks I can move to some other town pretty soon,
and go into business for myself. If I don't get into business, I'll
maybe marry a rich gam