The on the Farm Part 6 (1/2)
”Wouldn't you rather live in the city, though?”
”Yes, because I wasn't happy where I was in the country, and in the city I've had everything to make me happy. I suppose you'd rather live in the country, though?”
”No, indeed! I like to hear the city noises at night, and to see all the people. And I like to go to the theatre, when my aunt lets me go to a matinee, and to the moving picture shows, and everything like that. Don't you love the movies?”
”I never went, so I don't know.”
”Not really? You don't mean they haven't even got a moving picture place In Hedgeville? I never heard of such a thing!”
Bessie laughed.
”Moving pictures are pretty new, Dolly. No one could go to them until a little while ago, no matter where they lived, or how much money they had. And I guess people got along all right without them.”
”Yes, but they had to get along without lots of things until they were invented--telephones and electric lights, and lots and lots of useful things like that. But you wouldn't expect us to get along without them now, would you?”
”I guess it's only the things we know about that we really need, Dolly. If we don't know about a lot of these modern things, we keep right along getting on without them. Like Hedgeville--the only man there who has a telephone is Farmer Weeks.”
”Yes,” said Dolly triumphantly, ”and he's got more money than all the rest of the people in the place put together, hasn't he!”
Bessie laughed.
”And all this just because you want an ice-cream soda! What will you do if you really can't have one, Dolly?”
”I don't know! I'm just hankering for one--my mouth is watering from thinking about it!”
”We might ask this boy. Miss Eleanor said his name was Stubbs, Walter Stubbs.”
Bessie smiled to herself as she saw how surprised Dolly was trying to seem at the discovery that they had come to the part of the field where Walter was working. He was red to the ears, but Bessie could tell from the way he was looking at Dolly that the city girl, with her smart clothes and her pretty face, had already made a deep impression on the farm boy. Now as the two girls approached, he looked at them sheepishly, standing first on one foot, and then on the other.
”Do you work all the time?” Dolly asked him, impishly, darting a look at Bessie.
”Cal'late to--most of the time,” said Walter.
”Don't you ever have any fun? Don't you ever meet a couple of girls and treat them to ice-cream soda, for instance?”
”Oh, sure!” said Walter. ”Year ago come October Si Hinkle an' I, we went to the city for the day with the gals we was buzzin' then an' we bought 'em each an ice-cream sody.”
”Did you have to go to the city to do that?” said Dolly.
”Sure! Ain't no place nigher'n that. Over to Deer Crossin' there's a man has lemon pop in bottles sometimes, but he ain't got no founting like we saw in the city, nor no ice-cream, neither.”
Dolly was a picture of woe and disappointment.
”Tell yer what, though,” said Walter, bashfully. ”Sat.u.r.day night there's a goin' to be an ice-cream festival over to the Methodist Church at the Crossing, an' I'm aimin' ter go, though my folks is Baptists. I'll treat yer to a plate of ice-cream over there.”
”Will you, really?” said Dolly, brightening up and looking as pleased as if the ice-cream soda she wanted so much had suddenly been set down before her in the field.
”I sure will,” said Walter, hugely pleased. ”Say, they play all sorts of games over there--forfeits an' post office an'--”
Bessie had to laugh at Dolly's look of mystification.
”Come on, Dolly,” she said. ”We mustn't keep Walter from his work or he'll be getting into trouble. We can see him again some time when he isn't so busy.” And as they walked off she told Dolly about the country games the boy had spoken of--games in which kissing played a large part.
”The country isn't as nice as I thought,” said Dolly dolefully. ”I'm so thirsty, and there's no place to buy even sarsaparilla!”
”Maybe not, but I can show you something better than that for your thirst, Dolly. See that rocky place over there, under the trees! I'll bet there's a spring there. Let's find out.”
Sure enough, there was a spring, carefully covered, and a cup, so that anyone working in the fields could get water, and even Dolly had to admit that no ice-cream soda had ever quenched her thirst as well.
”What delicious water!” she exclaimed. ”Where's the ice?”
”There isn't any, silly!” laughed Bessie. ”It's cold like that because it comes bubbling right up out of the ground.”
”I bet that's just the sort of water they sell in bottles in the city, because it's so much purer than the city water,” said Dolly. ”But that's an awfully little spring, Bessie.”
”The basin isn't very big, but that doesn't mean that there isn't always plenty of water. You see, no matter how much you take out, there's always more coming. See that little brook? Well, this spring feeds that, and it runs off and joins other brooks, but there's always water here just the same. Of course, in a drought, if there was no rain for a long time, it might dry up, but it doesn't look as if that ever happened here.”
”Well, it is good water, and that's a lot better than nothing,” said Dolly. ”Come on! We started for the road. Let's go down and sit on the fence and watch the people go by.”
So they made their way on through the field until they came to the road, and there they sat on the fence, enjoying some apples that Bessie had p.r.o.nounced eatable, after several attempts by Dolly to consume some from half a dozen trees that would have caused her a good deal of pain later. Two or three automobiles pa.s.sed as they sat there, and Dolly looked at their occupants enviously.
”If we had a car, Bessie,” she said, ”we could get to some place where they sell ice-cream soda in no time, and be back in plenty of time for lunch, too. I wish some friend of mine would come along in one of those motors!”
None did, but, vastly to Bessie's surprise, they had not been there long before a big green touring car that had shot by them a few minutes before so fast that they could not see its occupants at all, came back, doubling on its course, and stopped in the road just before them. And on the driver's seat, discarding his goggles so that Bessie could recognize him, was Mr. Holmes--the man who had taken her and Miss Mercer for a ride, and whom she felt she had so much reason to distrust!
”This is good fortune! I'm very glad indeed to see you,” he said, cordially, to Bessie. ”Miss King, is it not--Miss Bessie King, Miss Mercer's friend? Won't you introduce me to the other young lady!”
CHAPTER X.
A FOOLISH PROCEEDING.
Reluctantly enough, Bessie yielded to his request. If she had known how to avoid introducing Holmes to Dolly, she would have done it. But she was not old enough, and not experienced enough, to understand how to manage such an affair. Had there been occasion, Miss Eleanor, of course, could have snubbed a man and still been perfectly polite while she was doing it. But Bessie had not reached that point yet.
”Are you staying down here together? How very pleasant!” said Holmes. ”This seems to be a beautiful place from the road, but of course one can't see very much from an automobile.”
”We're down here with our Camp Fire--a lot of the girls,” explained Dolly, hurriedly. ”Miss Mercer is Guardian of the Camp Fire, and this is her father's farm. It is a nice place, but it's dreadfully slow. Just fancy, there isn't a place anywhere around where we can even get an ice-cream soda!”
”Dolly!” said Bessie, in a low voice, reproachfully. ”You mustn't--”
”What a tragedy!” said Holmes, laughing.
”Oh, of course, you don't know what it is to have a craving for soda and not be able to get it!” said Dolly, pouting. ”So you laugh at me--”
Holmes was all regret in a moment.
”My dear Miss Dolly!” he protested. ”I wasn't laughing at you at all--really I wasn't! I was smiling at the idea of there being such a primitive place in a civilized country. Really, I was! And I'm sure it is a tragedy. I believe I'm as fond of ice-cream soda as you, if I am such an old fellow. And, after all, though it seems so tragic, it's easily mended, you know. I happen to remember pa.s.sing a most attractive looking drug store in a town about five miles back, and that's no ride at all in this car. Jump in, both of you, and I'll run you there and back in no time!”