Elizabeth made no reply, but took Jack on her lap and rocked him to keep herself occupied. There was less opportunity for disagreement if the child were still while his father talked. "If this rain'd only get busy we'd have a crop of millet yet," John began. "Corn's going to be mighty high and scarce this fall." Elizabeth did not reply; something in the air warned her to let John do the talking. She had ceased to enter into conversation with him unless something vital made it necessary to speak. The vital thing was not long in forthcoming. The whimsical weather made him depressed and kept his mind on the gloomy crop outlook. "Confound this beastly drizzle! If it'd only get down to business and rain we'd pull out yet. There'll be corn to buy for the cattle and the very devil to pay everywhere. I've got to lengthen out the sheds over those feeders--it hurried the cattle to get around them last winter--and here's all these extra expenses lately. There's no way out of it--we've got to put a mortgage on that west eighty. I'll take up the horse note in that case, and Johnson's offering that quarter section so cheap that I think I'll just make the loan big enough to cover the first payment and take it in. We'll never get it as cheap again." Elizabeth's eyes were wide open now, but she considered a moment before she began to speak. "We can't do that," she said slowly at last. "We're out of debt, except your personal note for the five hundred and the one for the team. It won't do to mortgage again." "But we'll have to mortgage, with the crop short, and all those cattle!" he exclaimed. "Sell a part of them as grass cattle, and use the money to buy corn for the rest," she advised. "Grass cattle are soft and don't weigh down like corn-fed steers. It would be sheer waste," John insisted. Elizabeth understood that right now they were to test their strength. She thought it over carefully, not speaking till she had decided what to say. The old path of mortgages and interest meant the old agony of dread of pay-day and the heart eaten out of every day of their existence, and yet she was careful not to rush into discussion. Her voice became more quiet as she felt her way in the debate. "You are right as far as you go, grass cattle do not sell for as much, but, on the other hand, a loan means interest, and there is always a chance of the loss of a steer or two and then the profit is gone and you have your mortgage left. Luther said yesterday that they had black-leg over north of home, and you know how contagious it is." "Oh, Luther! Of course Luther knows all there is to know about anything," sneered her husband, to whom Luther was a sore point just now. Elizabeth realized her mistake in mentioning Luther's name to John almost before it was out of her mouth. John's instincts made him bluster and get off the subject of business and on to that of personalities at once. She did not reply to the taunt, but went quietly back to the point of business.