B. Jones, Butcher

," from Mrs. Barnes.) "Perhaps I will one day. But this is dinner with a purpose. What you have been eating is Trust meat. It is not the best of its kind; but it is about the most expensive. Give me a twenty-mile run of the country hereabouts and I could furnish you better."

"Why don't the meat-markets furnish it?" asked Mrs. Chase, who had a thirst for information.

"Fear of the Trust's vengeance. They're allowed to buy only Trust meat. Kindly consider the writing on the wall, at our Babylonian feast." He pointed at the scroll and read a few of the items. "Sirloin steak, twenty-four cents a pound, roast beef, twenty-four cents, lamb, twenty-two cents, Canada mutton (from central Kansas), eighteen cents, calf's liver, sixteen cents. Mrs. Butterfield, will you give us from your housekeeping accounts the prices of those meats five years ago?"

"Sirloin steak, sixteen and eighteen cents, roast beef, nineteen cents, lamb chops, seventeen cents, Canada mutton, fourteen cents, calf's liver, eleve