wear, but hasn't as many horses and servants as it wants. It's just
as hard on her as it would be on you if the bacon gave out and you
couldn't go for more. Annabel--that's Miss Sellimer--likes Mr.
Compton very, very much, but she feels like her mother about
marrying a rich man, and I don't think he has much chance. One
trouble is that he thinks he must marry a rich girl, so they just
go on, loving each other, and looking about for 'chances.'

"I feel like I oughtn't to be wasting my time telling about my
friends when there are all these wonderful lights and carpets and
decorations and conveniences, so much more interesting. Whenever
you want hot water, instead of bringing a bucketful from the spring
and building a fire and sitting down to watch it simmer, you just
turn a handle and out it comes, smoking; and whenever you want
ice-water, you touch a button and give a boy ten cents.

"The funny thing to me is that Annabel and Mr. Compton both think
they HAVE to marry somebody rich, or not marry at all. They really
don't know they COULD marry each other, because imagining they would
be unable to keep the wolf from the door. That's because they can't
imagine themselves living behind anything but a door on one of the
'best streets.' We know, don't we, Brick and Bill, that it takes
mighty little to keep the coyote from the dugout! And there's
something else we know that these people haven't dreampt of--that
there's happiness and love in many and many a dugout. I don't know
what's behind the doors on the 'best streets.'

"We are not going straight on to Chicago. A gentleman has invited
the Sellimers, which of course includes me, to a house-party in the
country not far from Kansas City. He is a very rich man of middle