r heads
together, and wrote carefully in the numbers and legal description of the
land.

"And the party of the first part further agrees that the sum of----" John
was reading as he wrote it in. His voice ran on to the close. When the
writing was finished the man Johnson rose, and, picking up his straw hat,
said:

"I guess I'll be hurrying on toward home now. I'll stop in on the way
to-morrow morning. You'd just as well ride with me."

"Oh, I'll have to take Mrs. Hunter in with me," John replied, "and I can
just as well hitch up to my own rig."

"What are you taking me in with you for, John?" Elizabeth asked, perfectly
quiet on the outside, but aquiver with humiliation and dread because of
the thing she was being compelled to do.

"To fix up the papers on the west eighty; you know It'll be necessary for
you to sign them too." Addressing Mr. Johnson, he added easily: "My wife
objects to going into debt, Mr. Johnson, but I felt this too good an
opportunity to let pass, and since we can arrange it so that I won't have
to raise but a thousand dollars just now, I'm sure She'll see the
advisability of the move."

Elizabeth considered a second before she began to speak, and then said
slowly:

"Mr. Hunter does not understand the nature of my objection, I see. Of
course if he can arrange it with you so that all the indebtedness falls on
the land he is buying, I should have no objections whatever, but we cannot
mortgage our home. The provisions of the will forbid it, and I shall live
up to those provisions absolutely."

The silence which followed was vocal with astonishment. The man looked
from husband to wife for signs of quarrelling, but Elizabeth returned his
gaze quietly, and without signs of anger, and John also gave no indication
of anything but surprise. After a gasping instant, during which his
instincts warned him to keep on the side of decency, John accepted the
situation with seeming calm.

"Well, Mr. Johnson, if Mrs. Hunter feels that way about it, there's
nothing to do. I'm sorry to have brought you over on a fool's errand," he
said suavely, "but it can't be helped now. We'll take the land later,
however," and ushered his guest out of the house and helped him untie his
team without any sign of the tempest within.

John went back to the house with no concealment and no cajolery.

"We may as well know where we are and what we mean to do right here and
now, Elizabeth," he began. "If you're going to do this