Part 27 (1/2)
”He says he don't mind it. He's so pleased with the tobacco this summer.
It looks fine. If the hail don't get in it now it'll bring about four hundred dollars, he thinks. That will be the most he has ever gotten out of it. But tobacco is an awful risk. If the weather is just so it pays about the best of anything around this part of the country, I guess, but so often the poor farmers work hard in the tobacco fields and then the hail comes along and all is spoiled. But ours is fine so far.”
”I'm glad. David has been working hard all summer with it.”
”Sometimes he gets discouraged; Phares's crops always seem to do better than David's, yet David works just as hard. But Phares plants no tobacco.”
At that moment Phares Eby himself came into the room where the two sat.
He appeared a trifle embarra.s.sed when he saw Phbe. Since the June meeting under the sycamore tree by the old stone quarry he had made no special effort to see her, and the several times they had met in that time he had greeted her with marked restraint.
”Good-afternoon,” he murmured, looking from Phbe to Mother Bab and back again to Phbe. ”I didn't know you were here, Phbe. I--Aunt Barbara, I came in to tell you there's a bright red bird in the woods down by the cornfield.”
”There is!” cried Phbe with much interest. ”Is it all red, or has it black wings and tail?”
”Why, I couldn't say. I know David and Aunt Barbara are always interested in birds and I heard David say the other day that he hadn't seen a red bird this summer, that they must be getting scarce around this section. So I thought I'd come up and tell you about it. I know it is bright red. Do you want to come out and try to find it again, Aunt Barbara?”
”Not now, Phares. I have been in the sun so much to-day that my head aches.”
”Would you care to see it?” he asked Phbe in visible hesitation.
She answered eagerly, her pa.s.sionate love of birds mastering her embarra.s.sment. ”I'd love to, Phares! I am anxious to see whether it's a tanager or a cardinal. I have never seen a cardinal.”
South of David Eby's cornfield stretched a strip of woodland. There blackberry brambles tangled about the bases of great oaks and the entire woods--trees and brambles--made an ideal nesting-place for birds.
”Perhaps it's gone,” said the preacher as they went along to the woods.
”But it's worth trying for,” she said.
They kept silent then; only the rustling of the corn was heard as the two went through the green aisle. When they reached the woodland a sudden burst of glorious melody came to them. Phbe laid a hand impulsively upon the arm of the preacher, but she removed it quite as suddenly when he looked down at her and said, ”Our bird!”
The bird, a scarlet tanager, aware of the presence of the intruders and eager to attract attention to himself and safeguard his hidden mate, flew to an exposed branch of an oak tree. There he displayed his gorgeous, flaming scarlet body with its touch of black in wings and tail.
”It's a tanager,” said Phbe. ”Isn't he lovely!”
”Very fine,” said the preacher. ”What color is his mate? Is she red?”
”She's green, a lovely olive green. When she sits on the nest she's just the color of her surroundings. If she were red like her mate she'd be too easily destroyed.”
”G.o.d's providence,” said the preacher.
”It is wonderful--look, Phares, there he goes!”
The scarlet tanager made a streak of vivid color across the sky as he flew off over the corn.
”I wonder if he trusts us or if his mate is not about,” Phbe said.
”He's a beauty, so is his mate in her green frock. A few minutes with the birds can teach us a great deal, can't it?”
”Yes, Phbe, here, right near your home, are countless lessons to be learned and accomplishments to be acquired. Tell me, do you still wish to go away to the city?”
”Certainly. I am going in September.”