“Scott, what a head! I never thought of that. How are you getting along? Where have you arrived?”
“Not very far—two years or three. I've turned it over twice; once in oil and once in wheat.”
“Why, Aleck, it's splendid! How does it aggregate?”
“I think—well, to be on the safe side, about a hundred and eighty thousand clear, though it will probably be more.”
“My! isn't it wonderful? By gracious! luck has come our way at last, after all the hard sledding. Aleck!”
“Well?”
“I'm going to cash in a whole three hundred on the missionaries—what real right have we care for expenses!”
“You couldn't do a nobler thing, dear; and it's just like your generous nature, you unselfish boy.”
The praise made Sally poignantly happy, but he was fair and just enough to say it was rightfully due to Aleck rather than to himself, since but for her he should never have had the money.
Then they went up to bed, and in their delirium of bliss they forgot and left the candle burning in the parlor. They did not remember until they were undressed; then Sally was for letting it burn; he said they could afford it, if it was a thousand. But Aleck went down and put it out.