f and them, or get any permanent hold or access? She had
"turned it all over in her mind," she said; "and a tidy little shop
with fair, easy prices, was the very thing, and a part of just what
she came down there to do."

She made real, honest, hop-raised bread, of sweet flour that she
gave ten dollars a barrel for; it took a little more than a pint,
perhaps, to make a tea loaf; that cost her three cents; she sold her
loaf for four, and it was better than they could get anywhere else
for five. Then, three evenings in a week, she had hot muffins, or
crumpets, home-made; (it was the subtle home touch and flavor that
she counted on, to carry more than a good taste into their mouths,
even a dim notion of home sweetness and comfort into their hearts;)
these first,--a quart of flour at five cents, two eggs at a cent
apiece, and a bit of butter, say three cents more, with three cents
worth of milk, made an outlay of fifteen cents for a dozen and a
half; so she sold them for ten cents a dozen, and the like had never
been tasted or dreamed of in all that region round about; no, nor I
dare almost to say, in half the region round about Republic Avenue
either, where they cannot get Luclarion Grapps to cook.

The crumpets were cheaper; they were only bread-sponge, baked on a
griddle; they were large, and light and tender; a quart of flour
would make ten; she gave the ten for seven cents.

And do you see, putting two cents on every quart of her flour, for
her labor, she _earned_, not _made_,--that word is for speculators
and brokers,--with a barrel of one hundred and ninety six pounds or
quarts, three dollars and ninety-two cents? The beauty of it was,
you perceive, that she did a small business; there was an eager
market for all she could produce, and there was no waste to allow a
margin for.

I am not a bit of a political economist myself; but I have a shrewd
suspicion that Luclarion Grapp was, besides having hit upon the
initial, individual idea of a capital social and philanthropic
enterprise.

This was all she tried to do at first; she began with bread; the
Lord from heaven began with that; she fed as much of the multitude
as she could reach; they gathered about her for the loaves; and they
got, consciously or unconsciously, more than they came or asked for.

They saw her clean-swept floor; her netted windows that kept the
flies out, the clean, coarse white cotton shades,--tacked up, and
rolled and tied with cord, countr