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The time to visit the store and to see it really at work is when these small customers come in to be waited on. Of course it wouldn't do to have them crowding around all of the time. Big business and small business are so regulated that each has its own special store time. The time for small business is Saturday afternoons. Though we call it small it is quite as important as the big and its customers are made to feel that their trade is as valuable as that of the big ones, or even more so.

The money used by the small customers is queer but not "queer" in the sense that counterfeiters use it, for it is worth its face value at the store. And it is not counterfeit although it is made in the Village by the children. That requires an explanation.

On every Monday morning each child gets a slip of paper with his or her name written on it. On one side it is laid off in columns and squares, a column for each day of the week and a square in each column to represent every place its owner is scheduled to work, play, eat, sleep or go to school for that day.

On Saturday afternoon these slips are legal tender at the store if there is no hole through one of those squares. Some of the slips are good for five cents, some for as much as fifty cents a week. The wage scale is determined by the spending capacity of each boy or girl. Sometimes the rate goes up, sometimes it goes down, but mostly it goes up. Everybody earns something by just doing the best they can. It is only by doing their worst that they lose their week's pay. The most unusual thing about these wages is that they are paid in advance but must be carried in their pockets until Saturday. Then the store looks them over to see if any of them have been turned into counterfeits by a misconduct hole.

This Village currency has a name, -- "O.K. Slips." It is a grand name for it is made up of "O.K's" and "Slips."

There may be from one to six or eight of the squares used daily, depending on how many 'grown-ups' their owners visit between getting up and going to bed time. To begin with there is the cottage where they live, then the school teachers, indoor and outdoor instructors, -- all of the grown-ups with whom they work or recreate during the day. Each of these puts his or her initial in the proper square, when the lesson is over or the work done. This is an O.K. Sometimes, if things have happened that make it necessary, a hole has to be punched in the square instead, and that means a slip. So there you have it, -- O.K. -- Slip.

It is the holes that make the slips spurious, -- counterfeits. Strange to say the owners do it themselves. At any rate they just make their teachers, or cottage mothers and fathers or some other of the grown-ups who are trying to teach them the right way to do and say things, -- to be obedient, truthful, courteous, honest and industrious, -- punch the holes for them.

The other side of the slip is left blank for endorsements, and of these there may be more than one, such as "Paul unusually helpful in the cottage this morning;" "Mary very fine in physical culture class;" "John is taking better care of his horse;" "Helen ironed two blouses today, beautifully." They call these extras. Perhaps, too, if there has been a hole punched a few days before, this may appear, "Please cancel the hole. Ada has said she is sorry, promised to do better, and has." But, even so, the "O.K." slips don't look so pretty after a hole has been punched in them; but, as a reminder it is not without value.

Well, Saturday afternoon comes. Miss Groff has got rid of her big customers before noon. Before small ones begin to arrive early in the afternoon the store room looks like a bazaar. The counters are covered with an array of candies and nuts and fruits; sweet cakes and crackers; pencils, writing paper, water-color paints, ribbons, belts, garters, neckties; toys and other useful things made and decorated in the school and shops; valentines and other anniversary cards in their seasons; and other things that both big and little children like or need or just want, too numerous to mention. The Director himself, or Mr. Nash, the Superintendent, or Miss Hill or somebody else is there when store opens, seated at a little table where each customer comes first to hand over his or her "O.K." slip. If it's a counterfeit it's just too bad. That customer can't do any trading today; not even if he has $10.00 to his credit, some earned, some sent from home, maybe. Everybody is awfully sorry, but all he can do is to stand around and watch the other customers buy. For a while he stands near enough to the little table to hear what is being said to the other fellows from his cottage, for they come to "store" one cottage at a time.

"Well John! No hole this week! Bully for you! See if you can't get an 'extra' next week."

"That's great, Billy, 'extras' in school and at the barn. That's worth a three-cent bonus. Miss Groff, give Billy a credit of three cents more." All of the children hear that last.