"Wait till he's through his supper. It's no time now. There!" she continued, with a calculated clearness, "you give it back. I guess I didn't drop it, after all. Your fat's burnin'. Ketch it off, Elihu, won't ye?" The imperiled fat made a diversion, and then supper was on the table, and old Mis' Meade moved away from the window and brought her great bulk over to partake of turnovers. There was a long silence while tea was passed and the turnovers were pronounced upon by the acquisition that is more eloquent than words. But after Elihu had finished his fifth and last, he pushed his cup away with solemn satisfaction and asked his wife across the table:-- "What's that packin'-case out in the front entry?" Old Mis' Meade gave a smothered ejaculation of discouragement, but Amarita looked up with the brightest eyes. She was having a moment of perfect domestic peace, when all she did seemed to bear fruitage in the satisfaction of hunger and kindred needs, and it innocently seemed to her as if her compensating pleasure was about to come. She gazed straight at her husband, her eyes darkening with the pleasure in them. "Why," said she, "that's the 'Master Minds of History.'" Elihu bent a frowning brow upon her. "The 'Master Minds of History,'" she repeated. "The agent was here this afternoon--" "You don't think the mice'll git at them pies up in the blue chist, do ye?" inquired old Mis' Meade, fatuous in a desperate seeking to direct the talk. Amarita gave her a passing glance of wonder. "Why, no," she said. "They couldn't get in to save their little souls. You see"--she turned again to Elihu--"the agent was here this afternoon--" Old Mis' Meade almost groaned, and went away to her bedroom, as if she could not endure the hearing of the coming contest or to see the slain. "What agent?" asked Elihu. He had gone back to his seat by the fire, and Amarita, answering, stood with her hand upon the devastated table. "Why, the book agent. He come in a buggy, and he had this set with him." "Set o' what?" "Why, set o' books. He's takin' orders for 'em, and this was a set he brought along under the seat, thinkin' somebody, the minister or somebody that knew what's what, would buy it right out. There's twelve volumes, and they're a dollar and eighty-seven a volume, and there's illustrations, and it's all printed in the clearest type." She paused, flushed and expectant, and Elihu stared at her. "A dollar and eighty-seven cents!" he repeated. "You ain't gone and put your name down for twelve books, a dollar and eighty-seven cents apiece?" "Why, no," said Amarita. "Course I ain't. I didn't have the money, and so I told him. I would, in a minute, if I'd had it." "Well, what's the packin'-case here for?" inquired Elihu slowly, while his mind labored.