about a man's business?"

Desiring only to convince him, which she could not do if he were
irritated, Elizabeth laid her paring knife on the kitchen table and put
her arm about her husband's neck coaxingly.

"Of course you get everything I need, dear; that isn't the trouble. I
don't want to shut out opportunities for business either, but I gave up my
education to help pay interest. I know how hard it is to raise. The calves
die, and the cows don't give milk enough to make up the difference. The
loss---- Oh, I know," she said putting her hand affectionately over his
mouth to still the objection he had started to offer. "You think beef
cattle will be different, but black-leg gets into a herd of beef cattle
just as readily as into the cows and calves, and frosted corn is a
liability Kansas farmers always have hanging over a crop. I'm not
complaining about the cattle that are paid for--it's those we'd have to
pay for that were dead. The money was yours and you had a right to spend
it as you chose, but the debts will be _ours_. The skimping and saving
will fall on me as much as on you, and skimping makes people mean and
penurious. Promise me you won't go into debt without telling me again."

"Forget it, little woman," John replied, patting her face and kissing it
many times. "I'll never do anything to disgrace you."

He had not replied to a single argument; he had not made a single promise.
Elizabeth submitted to his caresses with a sigh. It was useless. She could
not fall out with him for the sake of the child that was coming. She
resolved to accept what she could get and try to be patient.

"I'm glad you were so nice to Aunt Susan," she said, trying to get away
from the impossible and make as much as she could out of the possible.
"we'll go over Sunday. I'd begun to think you'd never do it. We'll take
them by surprise."

John Hunter laughed indulgently. "You think you got me that time," he
said, and escaped to the well without further remark.

Elizabeth looked after him, and pondered, with a quivering lip, on the
wilfulness of the refusal to promise. She had been so sure that she was
escaping the hell of mortgages and interest when she married. The farm was
already carrying every cent the loan companies would give on first papers.
If anything should happen to the stock they would have to put a second
mortgage on part of it. John was determined to work on a large scale. She
had tried many times to show him how hard i