moment was approaching, and he began gathering up the
various parts of the chart with an air of extreme preoccupation. The
gleam of a ruby ring on his little finger caught Mary Crawford's eye,
and she noticed how white and well-formed his hands were, the hands of
one who had never done any manual labor. She stood irresolute,
fascinated by the gleam of the red jewel, and thinking of her little
hoard up-stairs in the Japanese box in the top bureau drawer. Five
dollars from thirteen dollars and sixty-five cents left eight dollars
and sixty-five cents. It would be three weeks before John's birthday
came. The hens were laying well, the young cow would be "fresh" next
week, and that would give her at least two pounds more of butter per
week. Then, the agent was such a nice-mannered, obliging young man; he
had spent an hour teaching her how to use the chart, and she hated to
have him take all that trouble for nothing.

She looked over at her husband, and her eyes said plainly: "Please help
me to decide."

But John was blind to the gentle entreaty. He had fixed ideas as to what
was a man's business and what a woman's; so he tilted his chair back
against the wall and chewed a straw while he gazed out of the open door.
His mental comment was: "If that agent fellow could work his hands just
half as fast as he works his jaw, he'd be a mighty good help on a farm."

The agent looked up with a cheery smile. He had folded the chart, and
was tying the red tape fastenings.

"I've got to get back to town in time to catch that four o'clock train
for Shepherdsville. I'm a thousand times obliged to you, Madam, for
letting me show you the working of the chart. Sometimes I have a good
deal of difficulty in getting ladies to understand the _modus operandi_
of the thing. Unless a woman remembers the arithmetic she learned when
she was a schoolgirl, she is apt to have trouble taking measurements.
But it's a pleasure to show any one who sees into it as readily as you
do. Most married women seem to give up their mathematical knowledge just
as they give up their music. But you've got yours right at your
fingers' ends. Well, good afternoon to you both, and the next time I
come this way--"

"Wait a minute," said Mary. "I'll take the chart. Just sit down and wait
till I go up-stairs and get the money."

The agent made a suave bow of acquiescence, and then stroked his
mustache to conceal an involuntary smile of triumph.

"You have a fine stand o