fool--and you'll be all hunky-dory. I'm scared from goin' wrong,
what of Sarah. But I'd sooner be loved into not going wrong."

"Oh, I'll do it, Tom," Saxon nodded, smiling through the tears
his sympathy had brought into her eyes. "And on top of it I'm
going to do something else, I'm going to make Billy love me and
just keep on loving me. And then I won't have to kid him into
doing some of the things I want. He'll do them because he loves
me, you see."

"You got the right idea, Saxon. Stick with it, an' you'll win
out."

Later, when she had put on her hat to start for the laundry, she
found Tom waiting for her at the corner.

"An', Saxon," he said, hastily and haltingly, "you won't take
anything I've said . . . you know . . . --about Sarah . . . as bein'
in any way disloyal to her? She's a good woman, an' faithful. An'
her life ain't so easy by a long shot. I'd bite out my tongue
before I'd say anything against her. I guess all folks have their
troubles. It's hell to be poor, ain't it?"

"You've been awful good to me, Tom. I can never forget it. And I
know Sarah means right. She does do her best."

"I won't be able to give you a wedding present," her brother
ventured apologetically. "Sarah won't hear of it. Says we didn't
get none from my folks when we got married. But I got something
for you just the same. A surprise. You'd never guess it."