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you?”
    â€œIt isn’t as simple as all that. He doesn’t send me. He came to speak of his difficulties.”
    â€œHe went to discuss his wife with his sister.”
    â€œNot at all. He never mentioned you. I’m afraid you don’t quite understand Abe. He has a dream which is all-in-all to him. He is in financial troubles. As I said, he is living through a crisis.”
    â€œHe has been living through one crisis after another.”
    â€œIt’s the pioneer’s lot. The pioneer used to live through periods of actual starvation. To-day, with settled districts all around, distress takes the form of financial stringency. It was bound to come. Perhaps you don’t give him full credit for what he has achieved.”
    â€œWho says I don’t? But why buy more and more machinery and land?”
    â€œIt’s the way of the west.”
    â€œBut that isn’t the point.”
    â€œWhat is, Ruth?”
    â€œI can’t discuss it.”
    Mary shrugged her shoulders. “Frances asleep?” she asked at last.
    Ruth rose and opened the door to the bedroom. That room, no larger than the dining-room, held four beds and a wardrobe. On one of the beds the little girl was lying, her head surrounded by yellow curls, damp with sleep. She was two years old.
    Mary entered, bent down, and kissed the child without waking her. Strongly moved, she turned back to the dining-room. She had no children of her own, much as she longed for them; and her emotion made her forget that Ruth had shown her the child only in order to let her see the crowded condition of the house.
    â€œI am more than sorry, Ruth,” she said as the door was closed.
    Ruth went with her into the yard, wrapping her apron about her bare arms. She called the other children; she could afford to be generous; her victory over her sister-in-law was but too apparent.
    â€œThis is your Aunt Mary,” she said as in formal introduction.
    The boys held out their hands; but Marion hid behind the skirts of her mother.
    Mary bent down, a pained look in her eyes. “I am not only your aunt, I am your godmother too.”
    But the child remained shy, and escaped. Bill came with horse and cutter.
    â€œI am more than sorry, Ruth,” Mary repeated, holding out her hand, which Ruth touched with her finger-tips, a triumphant smile on her lips….
    Just as Mary who had been crying, turned the cornerinto Main Street on her way home, she caught sight of Abe coming from the east and stopped to wait for him.
    Abe, in the cutter drawn by his bronchos, sat erect and stern. As he saw her, he drew up his eyebrows in a questioning way.
    Mary shook her head. “I am afraid, Abe, Ruth is right.”
    Abe nodded. “So long then.” And he proceeded on his way.
    It did not matter! Was Mary against him too?
    Arrived at home, he went straight to the house. What he had to say had only been made harder by that ill-judged mission of Mary’s.
    The children were sitting at table, having their supper. That discomposed him; he must wait. He entered the bedroom and changed into overalls. Then he went to the barn to keep himself busy.
    When he returned, Ruth was waiting for him. He spoke at once.
    â€œLook here, Ruth. I want you to help me. I can’t build this spring.”
    â€œWas that the news your sister was to break to me?”
    â€œIt was not. She didn’t know. Listen here. I’ve got to have more land. That fellow Fairley who owns the northeast quarter saw me in town. I didn’t know he lived there. He wants to sell and had a buyer offering a thousand dollars. I couldn’t afford to let the land go into other hands. It’s vital for me to have it. I offered eleven hundred. That’s what he was waiting for. I had to use the eight hundred set aside for the new rooms. You will consider that a breach of faith. I am breaking faith with you. But I’ll add at least one room to this shack in the fall;