sufficient.

They did not shock the sensibilities of the sewing-circle by writing
home exactly what the employment was that Dan had found, while, for
themselves, Polly had her own little ways of embellishing the somewhat
prosaic situation. She dubbed the young stable-boy Hercules, and
always spoke of the establishment he served as "The Augaeans." Nor did
her invention fail when, a month or two later, Dan got a place at
somewhat higher wages as druggist's messenger; for then he was
promptly informed that his name was Mercury, and that there were wings
on his heels, though he could not himself see them, by reason of their
being turned back, and visible only when his feet were in rapid
motion!

Meanwhile, Polly, too, was doing her part, though it had not yet
proved very lucrative. When they first took the house, Dan painted a
sign for her, bearing the following announcement:

FINE NEEDLEWORK AND EMBROIDERY TO ORDER.

But the spring and summer went by, and autumn came, and still the sign
which had ornamented their house-front for so many months had as yet
attracted the notice of only the impecunious class of customers their
immediate neighbourhood afforded. Polly had gratefully taken coarse
work at low prices, but she still hoped for better things. The street
where their tiny cottage stood, though at the wrong end of the town,
was a thoroughfare for pleasure parties driving to the great canyons,
and Polly never saw the approach of a pretty turnout without a thrill
of hope that the occupants might be attracted by her sign. She knew
herself to be a quick and skilful needlewoman, and she thought that if
only she might once get started in well-paid work, Dan, who was
growing stronger every day, might go on with his education at the
Colorado College Preparatory School. She had found out all about the
college, of which she had formed a very high opinion, and she told
herself proudly that Dan had such a good mind that he would not need
to study too hard.

One evening in September they were clearing the supper table,
preparatory to washing up the dishes, which ceremony was one of the
numerous "larks" by which brother and sister found life diversified
and enlivened.

"Mercury, I have an idea!" Polly suddenly cried.

"Never saw the time you hadn't, Polly."

"But this is a great idea, a really great one, because it includes all
the little ones, like Milton's universe in the crescent moon; don't
you remember