gray streaks in her hair is puttin' up a howl at the price of corned
beef. She'd asked for the cheapest piece they had, and it had been
weighed for her, but still she wasn't satisfied.

"It wasn't as high last Saturday," she objects.

"No, ma'am," says the clerk. "It's gone up since."

"Worse luck," says she, pokin' the piece with her finger. "And this is
nearly all bone and fat. Now couldn't you----"

"I'll ask the boss, ma'am," says the clerk. "Here he is."

Belcher has come over and is listenin', glarin' hostile at the woman.

"It's Mrs. Burke, the one whose sons are in the army," whispers Vee.

"Well?" demands Belcher.

"It's so much to pay for meat like that," says Mrs. Burke. "If you
could----"

"Take it or leave it," snaps Belcher.

"Sure now," says she, "you know I can't afford to give----"

"Then get out!" orders Belcher.

At which Vee swings open the door of the cage, brushes past me, and
faces him with her eyes snappin'.

"Pig!" says she explosive.

"Wha-a-a-at!" gasps Belcher, gawpin' at her.

"I--I beg pardon," says Vee. "I shouldn't have said that, even if it was
so."

"You--you're discharged, you!" roars Belcher.

"Isn't that nice?" says Vee, reachin' for her hat and coat. "Then I can
go home with my husband, I suppose. And if I have earned any of that
princely salary--five dollars a week, it was to be, wasn't it?--well,
you may credit it to my account: Mrs. Richard Tabor Ballard, you know.
Come, Torchy."

Say, I always did suspect there was mighty few things Vee was afraid of,
but I never thought she had so much clear grit stowed away in her
system. For to sail past Belcher the way he looked then took a heap of
nerve, believe me. But before he can get that thick tongue of his
limbered up we're outside, with Vee snuggled up mufflin' the giggles
against my coat sleeve.

"Oh, it's been such a lark, Torchy!" says she. "I've passed as Miss
Hemmingway for six days, and I don't believe more than three or four
persons have suspected. Thank goodness, Belcher wasn't one of them. For
I've learned--oh, such a lot!"

"Let's start at the beginning," says I. "Why did you do it at all?"

"Because the committee was so ready to believe the whoppers he told,"
says Vee. "And they wanted to disband the League, especially that Mrs.
Norton Plummer, whose husband is a lawyer. She was almost disagreeable
about it. Truly. 'But, my dear,' she said to me, 'one can't act merely
on rumor and prejudice. If