a and Zelotes Snow,
and no others need apply. . . . Eh? . . . Well, good night, Al."

CHAPTER VIII

So the game under the "new deal" began. At first it was much easier than
the old. And, as a matter of fact, it was never as hard as before. The
heart to heart talk between Captain Zelotes and his grandson had given
each a glimpse of the other's inner self, a look from the other's
point of view, and thereafter it was easier to make allowances. But the
necessity for the making of those allowances was still there and would
continue to be there. At first Albert made almost no mistakes in his
bookkeeping, was almost painfully careful. Then the carefulness relaxed,
as it was bound to do, and some mistakes occurred. Captain Lote
found little fault, but at times he could not help showing some
disappointment. Then his grandson would set his teeth and buckle down to
painstaking effort again. He was resolved to live up to the very letter
of the agreement.

In his spare time he continued to write and occasionally he sold
something. Whenever he did so there was great rejoicing among the
feminine members of the Snow household; his grandmother and Rachel Ellis
were enraptured. It was amusing to see Captain Zelotes attempt to join
the chorus. He evidently felt that he ought to praise, or at least that
praise was expected from him, but it was also evident that he did not
approve of what he was praising.

"Your grandma says you got rid of another one of your poetry pieces,
Al," he would say. "Pay you for it, did they?"

"Not yet, but they will, I suppose."

"I see, I see. How much, think likely?"

"Oh, I don't know. Ten dollars, perhaps."

"Um-hm . . . I see. . . . Well, that's pretty good, considerin', I
suppose. . . . We did first-rate on that Hyannis school-house contract,
didn't we. Nigh's I can figger it we cleared over fourteen hundred and
eighty dollars on that."

He invariably followed any reference to the profit from the sale of
verses by the casual mention of a much larger sum derived from the sale
of lumber or hardware. This was so noticeable that Laban Keeler was
impelled to speak of it.

"The old man don't want you to forget that you can get more for hard
pine than you can for soft sonnets, sellin' 'em both by the foot,"
observed Labe, peering over his spectacles. "More money in shingles
than there is in jingles, he cal'lates. . . . Um. . . . Yes, yes. . . .
Consider'ble more, consider'ble."

Albert smiled