“‘Oh, I can’t explain all that to you now. I just hurried home to give you your third of it all. I was afraid I might be tempted to invest it in something else and lose it, for it is a gamble. I believe in a man giving his wife her third while he is alive, then both can enjoy it.’
“After he had gone back to the bank Libra sat down to think it all over. She had everything that she actually needed, but she would like the diamonds he had spoken of a few days before. Well, she could have them now and she believed she would get them; they would add so much to her appearance. She had just decided this point when Scoris called to see her. Of course she told her of Lear’s generosity, then asked what she would do if any one gave her such a splendid gift.
“‘Do with it?’ exclaimed Scoris. ‘Why, I should secure shares in the society as soon as I could get to the treasurer’s office to attend to it.’
“‘Why, Scoris, I never thought of that,’ she answered. ‘I have a good mind to do it, or at least half of it. Supposing I send it to Tom and ask him to arrange it for me. I can sell it,’ she said in a hesitating way, ‘at any time I like, can’t I?’
“‘Yes, to the members,’ Scoris said, ‘but I hope you never will, for if anything happened to Lear you would be provided for.’
“‘Oh, come now, Scoris,’ she replied, ‘I don’t have to provide for my future, my husband will take care of that, but I would like to take some shares in the society. I don’t know anything about business and don’t know which is right, he or Lear. Of course, if Tom is right, my husband is wrong, so we won’t talk about it. I can do as I like with this money, so I will do this. I often feel ashamed to hear people talk about the success he is making and not to be able to tell them something about it myself.’
“‘All right,’ Scoris had said, and that was how they happened to have shares. When her husband sank all they had in trying to bolster up his failing fortune years after, he was amazed to find that those shares provided him with a home and was even the means of helping him to gain a position in the bank after he had learned its different methods.
“Libra became interested in the society after she had made an investment in it and often asked questions that showed she was thinking.
“She asked me one day what was meant by margins on the price of wheat. I told her that all over the wheat belts of the country the railroads had immense elevators that the farmers could store their grain in them free from charge. This saved the farmers the expense of storage houses; they, of course, made use of the railroads. The railroads control it and possession is nine points in the law. ‘You see, Libra,’ I explained, ‘the controlling element, which is the money power, keep themselves in touch with each other. The railroads are a part of that power. So is the stock exchange where the price of the grain is fixed. Then the price is telegraphed to the different points where the elevators are situated and the dealers announce the price to the farmers. If they have to sell at any price to straighten out their indebtedness at the stores or for hired men who help them to seed and then thresh and get it in, as many do, they will sell at the first chance; they can’t help themselves. The dealer will own it now who is living on any profits he can get out of it and he is usually a bright, sharp man. He in turn holds it for the city dealers; all have to risk something for each tries to get all they can. Now remember, it may never have left that elevator where it was stored in the first place by the farmer, still, all these men have a profit out of it. Now, your husband bought at a certain price and he sold his margin or profit to someone else. He couldn’t sell the wheat for he never had it, nor did he ever intend to get it. He had the money to invest and he was assured that he could make that amount out of it, or, in other words, he held or “cornered it” for a few hours or days, and that is perhaps what he did.’
“Then she asked, ‘But how do they get the money?’ I answered, ‘From the banks and insurance companies usually; of course, that is only one way. There are many others.’