want to pay for ’em, or else the store where he bought ’em won’t take ’em back, an’ they got to prove how many shingles are bad shingles, or somep’m, an’ anyway, mamma, that’s what Willie’s doin’.  Every time he comes to a bad shingle, mamma, he puts it somewheres else, or somep’m like that, mamma, an’ every time he’s put a thousand bad shingles in this other place they give him six cents.  He gets the six cents to keep, mamma—­an’ that’s what he’s been doin’ all day!”

“Good gracious!”

“Oh, but that’s nothing, mamma—­just you wait till you hear the rest.  That part of it isn’t anything a tall, mamma!  You wouldn’t hardly notice that part of it if you knew the other part of it, mamma.  Why, that isn’t anything!” Jane made demonstrations of scorn for the insignificant information already imparted.

“Jane!”

“Yes’m?”

“I want to know everything Genesis told you,” said her mother, “and I want you to tell it as quickly as you can.”

“Well, I am tellin’ it, mamma!” Jane protested.  “I’m just beginning to tell it.  I can’t tell it unless there’s a beginning, can I?  How could there be anything unless you had to begin it, mamma?”

“Try your best to go on, Jane!”

“Yes’m.  Well, Genesis says—­Mamma!” Jane interrupted herself with a little outcry.  “Oh!  I bet that’s what he had those two market-baskets for!  Yes, sir!  That’s just what he did!  An’ then he needed the rest o’ the money an’ you an’ papa wouldn’t give him any, an’ so he began countin’ shingles to-day ‘cause to-night’s the night of the party an’ he just Hass to have it!”

Mrs. Baxter, who had risen to her feet, recalled the episode of the baskets and sank into a chair.  “How did Genesis know Willie wanted forty dollars, and if Willie’s pawned something how did Genesis know that?  Did Willie tell Gen—­”

“Oh no, mamma, Willie didn’t want forty dollars—­only fourteen!”

“But he couldn’t get even the cheapest readymade dress-suit for fourteen dollars.”

“Mamma, you’re gettin’ it all mixed up!” Jane cried.  “Listen, mamma!  Genesis knows all about a second-hand store over on the avynoo; an’ it keeps ‘most everything, an’ Genesis says it’s the nicest store!  It keeps waiter suits all the way up to nineteen dollars and ninety-nine cents.  Well, an’ Genesis wants to get one of those suits, so he goes in there all the time, an’ talks to the man an’ bargains an’ bargains with him, ‘cause Genesis says this man is the bargainest man in the wide worl’, mamma!  That’s what Genesis says.  Well, an’ so this man’s name is One-eye Beljus, mamma.  That’s his name, an’ Genesis says so.  Well, an’ so this man that Genesis told me about, that keeps the store—­I mean One-eye Beljus, mamma—­well, One-eye Beljus had Willie’s name written down in a book, an’ he knew Genesis worked for fam’lies that have boys like Willie in ’em, an’