airily. "Ten ways of earning a living
is a fair show. I can discard nine more and still have a chance."

"All right, Patsy. I'm glad you're not disheartened. And I suppose you
are learning something of the conditions of our social economy."

"Gracious, Nan! How you _do_ talk! Are you quite sure you know what you
mean?"

"No, but I thought you would," said Nan, and with that parting shot, she
left the room.

It was late in the afternoon before Patty dawdled downstairs.

Her shoulders and the back of her neck still ached, but otherwise she
felt all right again, and her spirits had risen proportionately.

About four o'clock Kenneth called, bringing a mysterious burden, which he
carried with great care.

He knew of Patty's scheme, and though he appreciated the nobility of her
endeavour, he could not feel very sanguine hopes of her success.

"You're not cut out for a wage-earner, Patty," he had said to her; "it's
like a butterfly making bread."

"But I don't want to be a butterfly," Patty had pouted.

"Oh, I don't mean butterfly,--as so many people do,--to represent a
frivolous, useless person. I have a great respect for butterflies,
myself. And you radiate the same effect of joy, happiness, gladness, and
beauty, as a butterfly does when hovering around in the golden sunshine
of a summer day."

"Why, Ken, I didn't know you were a poet. But you haven't proved your
case."

"Yes, I have. It's your mission in life to be happy, and so to make
others happy. This you can do without definite effort, so stick to your
calling, and let the more prosaic people, the plodders,--earn wages."

"Let me earn the wages of my country, and I care not who makes it smile,"
Patty had rejoined, and there the subject had dropped.

To-day, when he arrived, carrying what was evidently something fragile,
Patty greeted him gaily.

"I'm not working to-day," she said; "so you can stay 'most an hour if you
like."

"Well, I will; and if you'll wait till I set down this precious burden,
I'll shake hands with you. I come, like the Greeks, bearing gifts."

"A gift? Oh, what is it? I'm crazy to see it."

"Well, it's a gift; but, incidentally, it's a plan for wage-earning. If
you really want to wage-earn, you may as well do it in an interesting
way."

"Yes," said Patty, demurely, for she well knew he was up to some sort of
foolery. "My attempts so far, though absorbing, were not really
interesting."

"Well, this is!" declared Kenneth, wh