things, I should never have called them securities. Insecurities comes a
great deal nearer what they are. What right has a thing that says on its
face it is worth a thousand dollars to go bobbing up and down in the way
most of them do? I think that securities is almost sarcastic. And have
you noticed the price of those Petunias?'"

"I had, of course, noticed it; but I had not mentioned it to Ethel. 'I
read the papers now,' she explained, 'morning and evening. Of course the
market is off a little on account of the bank statement. But that is not
enough to account for the Petunias.'"

"'Ethel, you are nervous,' I said. 'And it is the papers which make you
so. The Petunias are a first lien on the whole property, of which the
assessed valuation--'"

"'What is the good,' she interrupted, 'of a first lien on something which
depends on politics for its existence, if the politicians change their
minds? Did you not see that bill they're thinking of passing?' I was
startled by what Ethel told me, for the article in the paper had escaped
my notice. But Mr. Beverly explained it to me in a couple of minutes.
'Ha!' he jovially exclaimed, on my entering his office on Monday morning;
'you want to know about Petunias. They opened at 85 I see.' He then ran
the tape from the ticker through his clean strong hands. 'Here they are
again. Five thousand sold at 83. Now, if they go to 70, I'll very likely
take ten thousand more for mother. It's all Frank Smith's bluff, you
know. He wants a jag of the water-works stock, more than they say they
agreed he should have. So he's shaking this bill over them, which would
allow the city to build its own water-plant, and of course run the
present company out of business. Not a thing in it! All bluff. He'll get
the stock, I suppose. What's that?' he broke off to a clerk who came with