belly. If he tries any dirty business get the sheriff after him."

"It's on the GROWING corn," said Rose.

"And here's another important point--taxes. Don't pay any taxes
on mortgages. What's the use of giving the politicians more money
to waste? Hold on to your bank stock and arrange to have all
mortgages in the name of the bank, not in your own. They pay
taxes on their capital and surplus, not on their loans. But be
sure to get a written acknowledgment on each mortgage from
Osborne. He's square, but you can't ever tell what changes might
take place and then there might be some question about mortgages
in the bank's name."

"Keep them in the bank's name," said Rose.

"And a written acknowledgment," Martin stressed.

"A written acknowledgment," she echoed.

For probably fifteen minutes he lay without further talk; then, a
little more weariness in his voice than she had ever known
before, he began to speak again.

"I've been thinking a great deal, Rose." There was still that new
tenderness in the manner in which he pronounced her name, that
new tone she had never heard before and which caused her to feel
a little nervous. "I've been thinking, Rose, about the years
we've lived together here on a Kansas prairie farm--"