s they last. When they go, I suppose I'll have to take to
calico, but it will be pretty calico, and pink. Pink calico don't cost a
penny more than drab--and there's one thing I positively decline to do,
even in a jungle, and that is look ugly."

"You couldn't if you tried, my beauty."

"Oh, yes, I could--I could look hideous--any woman could if she tried.
But as long as it doesn't cost any more, you've no objection to my
cooking in pink instead of drab, I suppose?"

"I've an objection to your cooking in anything. Another cup of coffee,
please."

"Ben."

"Yes, dear."

"You never drank but one of Aunt Mehitable's."

"I'm aware of it, and I'm aware of something else. It's worth being
poor, Sally, to be poor with you."

"Then give me another taste of your coffee. But you don't call this
being poor, do you, you silly boy?--with all this beautiful mahogany
that I can use for a mirror? This isn't any fun in the world. Just wait
until I spread the cloth over a pine table. Then we'll have something to
laugh at sure enough, Ben."

"And I thought you'd cry!"

"You thought a great many very foolish things, my dear. You even thought
I'd married you because I wanted to be rich, and it seemed an easy way."

"Only it turned out to be an easier way of getting poor."

"Well, rich or poor, what I married you for, after all, was the
essential thing."

"And you've got it, sweetheart?"

"Of course I've got it. If I didn't have it, do you think I'd be able to
laugh at a pine table?"

"If I were only sure you realised it!"

"You'll be sure enough when we are in the midst of it, and we'll be in
the midst of it, I don't doubt, in a little while. I've been thinking
pretty hard since last night, and this is what I worked out while I was
making yeast."

"Let's have it, then."

"Now, the first thing we've got to do is to get out of debt, isn't it?"

"The very first thing, if it can be managed."

"We'll manage it this way. The furniture and the silver and my jewels
must all be sold, of course; that's easy. But even after we've done
that, there'll still be a great big burden to carry, I suppose?"

"Pretty big, I'm afraid, for your shoulders."

"Oh, we'll pay it every bit in the end. We won't go bankrupt. You'll go
back to the railroad on a salary, and we'll begin to pinch on the spot."

"Yes, but times are hard and salaries are low."

"Anyway they're salaries, there's that much to be said for them. And
while we're pinch