"You pay rent, don't you?" began Mr. Rogers, "Sixty, you said?
That's seven hundred and twenty dollars a year, and you have
nothing to show for it! But you'd consider seventy-five or a
hundred cheap enough for a place like this wouldn't you?"

"I could go--a hundred, yes," Bert admitted, clearing his throat.

"You don't HAVE to go any hundred," the agent said, triumphantly.
"And besides that, isn't it to your advantage to live in your own
house, and have a home that you can be proud of, and pay
everything over your interest toward your mortgage? We have people
here who only paid two or three thousand down, we don't push you--
that isn't our idea. If you can't meet our terms, we'll meet
yours. You've got your nest-egg, whatever it is----"

"As a matter of fact, I've got ten thousand to start with," Bert
said slowly. "But that's all I have got, Rogers," he added firmly,
"And I don't propose----"

"You've GOT ten thousand?" asked the agent, with a kindly smile.
And immediately his vehemence gave way to a sort of benign
amusement. "Why, my dear boy," he said genially, "What's the
matter with you? There's a mortgage of twelve thousand on that
place now; you pay your ten, and 6 per cent, on the rest--that's
something a little more than sixty dollars a month--and then you
clear off your loan, or not, as suits you! I don't have to tell
you that that's good business. How much of the holdings of
Pearsall and Pearsall are clear of mortgages! We carry 'em on
every inch of our land, right to the hilt too. If you're getting