At last he looked up, smiling as he said, "So I put notions into your head, do
I?"

"Oh, well," she replied, flushing in the consciousness of her thoughts, "if
you think it's foolish to spend money for such things--"

"Tush, tush, Alida! Of course I'll get what you wish. But I really am going
to put a notion into your head, and it's stupid and scarcely fair in me that I
hadn't thought of some such plan before. You want to take care of the
chickens. Well, I put them wholly in your care and you shall have all you can
make off them--eggs, young chickens, and everything."

"That IS a new notion," she replied, laughing. "I hadn't thought of such a
thing and it's more than fair. What would I do with so much money?"

"What you please. Buy yourself silk dresses if you want to."

"But I couldn't use a quarter of the money."

"No matter, use what you like and I'll put the rest in the bank for you and in
your name. I was a nice kind of a business partner, wasn't I? Expecting you
to do nearly half the work and then have you say, 'Will you please get me a
few plants and seeds?' and then, 'Oh! If you think it's foolish to spend money
for such things.' Why, you have as good a right to spend some of the money
you help earn as I have. You've shown you'll be sensible in spending it. I
don't believe you'll use enough of it. Anyway, it will be yours, as it ought
to be."

"Very well," she replied, nodding at him with piquant significance, "I'll