Please look them over." Ma Briskow did as urged, but the shock was paralyzing; delight, admiration, expectancy, gave place to horrified amazement at the figures upon the tags.

She shook her head slowly and made repeated sounds of disapproval.
"Tse! Tse! Tse! Why, your pa's crazy! Plumb crazy!" Although the mother's principal emotion for the moment was aroused by the price marks on the price tags, Allegheny paid little attention to them and began vainly fitting ring after ring to her fingers.

All were too small, however; most of them refused to pass even the first joint, and Gray realized now what Gus Briskow had meant when he wrote for rings "of large sises." Eventually the girl found one that slipped into place, and this she regarded with complacent admiration.
"This one'll do for me," she declared.

"And it's a whopper!" Gray took her hand in his; as yet it had not been greatly distorted by manual labor, but the nails were dull and cracked and ragged and they were inlaid in deep mourning.

"I don't believe you'll like that mounting," he said, gently.