d Cherry in a shocked voice.

"Well, Hope was reading yesterday about some place where snakes coil up
and look just like springs of water, and when thirsty people bend over
to drink, the snakes bite them. There _might_ be bugs somewhere that
looked like strawberries so folks would try to eat them. Course I
wouldn't want them to hurt the people bad--just enough to make them jump
good."

"I would rather have strawberries look like pennies--"

"I'd rather have them _be_ pennies. Just think, if we could pick money
off from strawberry vines! Everyone would start to raising strawberries,
wouldn't they? And how rich we would be! Never mind, we picked ten
boxes of berries this afternoon--that means a shoe apiece. We surely
ought to get that many more by noon tomorrow. Let's begin early so's to
pick as many as we can before it gets hot."

So the morrow found them early in the field again, and by noon the
second ten boxes were filled to the brim.

"There!" breathed Cherry in relief, mopping her crimson face on her
sleeve as she surveyed the fruit of their labor. "We are done. Now we
can get our shoes all right tomorrow. Why, what are you doing, Peace?
Are you crazy?" For Peace had snatched up some empty boxes from another
crate and was making her way between the green rows again.

"Nope," answered the perspiring little maid. "I am just going to pick
some more."

"Well, I'm not!" was the emphatic reply, as Cherry started after the
dusty figure plodding down the field. "I am nearly cooked now, and
hungry as a bear. Come on home! We have picked enough to pay for our
shoes, goosie. Or do you want two pair?"

Peace lifted her somber eyes from her self-appointed task and said
briefly, "Yep--for Allee."

"For Allee?" echoed astonished Cherry. "You told me yourself that she
didn't need any new shoes."

"Well, I didn't think she did, but last night I 'xamined her only pair
and they look awfully scrubby. There isn't any more blacking in the
house, and the ink I sopped onto them made them worse than ever.
Besides, I--it would look mean to get us some shoes and not any for
her."

Without another word, Cherry gathered up an armful of empty boxes and
dropped down by a new row of vines, picking silently, ploddingly until
at last the third ten had been filled. Then she spoke, "Is this all, or
are you going to earn shoes for Hope and Faith and Gail? Because the
afternoon is pretty well gone and--"

"Three pair of shoes is all I am