“There’ll be twenty thousand profit coming from the ten a year from now. We can spend that, can’t we, Aleck?”

Aleck shook her head.

“No, dear,” she said, “it won’t sell high till we’ve had the first semi-annual dividend. You can spend part of that.”

“Shucks, only that—and a whole year to wait! Confound it, I—”

“Oh, do be patient! It might even be declared in three months—it’s quite within the possibilities.”

“Oh, jolly! oh, thanks!” and Sally jumped up and kissed his wife in gratitude. “It ’ll be three thousand—three whole thousand! how much of it can we spend, Aleck? Make it liberal—do, dear, that’s a good fellow.”

Aleck was pleased; so pleased that she yielded to the pressure and conceded a sum which her judgment told her was a foolish extravagance—a thousand dollars. Sally kissed her half a dozen times and even in that way could not express all his joy and thankfulness. This new access of gratitude and affection carried Aleck quite beyond the bounds of prudence, and before she could restrain herself she had made her darling another grant—a couple of thousand out of the fifty or sixty which she meant to clear within a year out of the twenty which still remained of the bequest. The happy tears sprang to Sally’s eyes, and he said:

“Oh, I want to hug you!” And he did it. Then he got his notes and sat down and began to check off, for first purchase, the luxuries which he should earliest wish to secure. “Horse—buggy—cutter—lap-robe—patent- leathers—dog—plug hat—church-pew—stem-winder—new teeth—say, Aleck!”

“Well?”

“Ciphering away, aren’t you? That’s right. Have you got the twenty thousand invested yet?”

“No, there’s no hurry about that; I must look around first, and think.”

“But you are ciphering; what’s it about?”

“Why, I have to find work for the thirty thousand that comes out of the coal, haven’t I?”

“Scott, what a head! I never thought of that. How are you getting along? Where have you arrived?”

“Not very far—two years or three. I’ve turned it over twice; once in oil and once in wheat.”

“Why, Aleck, it’s splendid! How does it aggregate?”

“I think—well, to be on the safe side, about a hundred and eighty thousand clear, though it will probably be more.”

“My! isn’t it wonderful? By gracious! luck has come our way at last, after all the hard sledding. Aleck!”

“Well?”

“I’m going to cash-in a whole three hundred on the missionaries—what real right have we to care for expenses!”

“You couldn’t do a nobler thing, dear; and it’s just like your generous nature, you unselfish boy.”