"Not our business, Miss Smith--sorry--very sorry--but try to be more economical. Economy is the great objective haven of life. Emerson says so. And Browning in a most beautiful line of poetry says the same thing," he added. "The way to begin economy is to begin it--Emerson is so helpful to me--he always comes in at the right time." "And it's only to be two dollars," she added. "That's all," and he pushed her the order. She took it, cashed it and went hurriedly out, her poke bonnet pulled over her face. But there were hot tears and a sob under her bonnet. And so it went on for two hours--some drawing nothing, but remaining to beg for an order on the store to keep them running until next week. One man with six children in the mill next came forward and drew eighteen dollars. He smiled complacently as he drew it and chucked the silver into his pocket. This gave Jud Carpenter, standing near, a chance to get in his mill talk. "I tell you, Joe Hopper," he said, slapping the man on the back, "that mill is a great thing for the mothers an' fathers of this little settlement. What 'ud we do if it warn't for our chillun?" "You're talkin now--" said Joe hopefully. "It useter be," said Jud, looking around at his crowd, "that the parents spoiled the kids, but now it is the kids spoilin' the parents." His audience met this with smiles and laughter. "I never did know before," went on Jud, "what that old sayin' really meant: 'A fool for luck an' a po' man for chillun.'" Another crackling laugh. "How much did Joe Hopper's chillun fetch 'im in this week?" Joe jingled his silver in his pocket and spat importantly on the floor. "I tell you, when I married," said Jud, "I seed nothin' but poverty an' the multiplication of my part of the earth ahead of me--poverty, I tell you, starvation an' every new chile addin' to it. But since you started this mill, Mister Kingsley (Kingsley smiled and bowed across the desk at him), I've turned what everybody said 'ud starve us into ready cash. And now I say to the young folks: 'Marry an' multiply an' the cash will be forthcomin'.'" This was followed by loud laughs, especially from those who were blessed with children, and they filed up to get their wages. Jim Stallings, who had four in the mill, was counted out eleven dollars. As he pocketed it he looked at Jud and said: "Oh, no, Jud; it don't pay to raise chillun. I wish I had the chance old Sollerman had. I'd soon make old Vanderbilt look like shin plaster." He joined in the laughter which followed. In the doorway he cut a pigeon-wing in which his thin, bowed legs looked comically humorous. Jud Carpenter was a power in the mill, standing as he did so near to the management. To the poor, ignorant ones around him he was the mouth-piece of the mill, and they feared him even more than they did Kingsley himself, Kingsley with his ironical ways and lilting eye-glasses. With them Jud's nod alone was sufficient.