to make it at least--"

He figured roughly on a sheet of paper, while the other State and
the Territory attended strictly to their occupation of feeding the
Territory.

"I should say, roughly speaking," said Mr. Fenelby, "that to raise
two hundred and fifty dollars a year we ought to make the duty
sixteen and three-quarters per cent., but I don't think that is
advisable. It would be too hard to figure. I might be able to do it,
Laura, but if you bought a waist for one dollar and ninety-eight
cents, and had to figure sixteen and three-quarters per cent. on it,
I don't believe you could do it."

"The idea!" said Mrs. Fenelby. "I would never think of buying a
waist for one dollar and ninety-eight cents. I try to be economical,
Tom, but you know you always like me to look well, and those cheap
waists do not look well, and they are really dearer in the long run,
because they get out of shape in a few days, and never wear well,
anyway. The very cheapest waist I have bought for years was that one
I got for three dollars and forty-seven cents, and I could have done
much better if I had bought the goods and made it up myself."

"Ah--yes," said Mr. Fenelby, hesitatingly. "I am afraid you did not
just catch my meaning, Laura. It does not make any difference
whether the waist costs one dollar and ninety-eight cents or twelve
dollars and sixty-three cents. I mean that it would be a hard job to
figure sixteen and three-quarters per cent. of it. Suppose we leave
the duty at ten per cent. on necessities, and make it thirty per
cent. on luxuries? That ought to make it come out about two hundred
and fifty dollars a year, and if it does not we can have a meeting
of congress any time and raise the duty."

"That would be very nice," said Mrs. Fenelby.

So it was decided that the tariff duty on necessities was to be ten
per cent., and that on luxuries it should be thirty per cent., and
Mr. Fenelby wrote down in the book these facts, and the Fenelby
Tariff was in effect.

II

THE BOX OF BON-BONS

The financial arrangements of the Fenelbys were extremely simple.
Every week Mr. Fenelby received his salary and brought every cent of
it home to Laura. Out of this she handed him back a sum that was
unvaryingly the same, and with this Mr. Fenelby paid his car-fares,
bought his evening papers, his cigars, and such other little things
as a man finds necessary. It was a very small sum, and Mr. Fenelby
could not have afforded the p