Part 7 (1/2)
”Depends on what you call far. Mile or so. Didn't the 'Lizzie' meet the six-thirty?”
Peter stared at her vacuously, for this was Greek.
”The 'Lizzie'?”
”The tin 'Lizzie'--Jim Hagerman's bus--carries the mail and papers.
Sometimes he gives me a lift about here.”
”No. There was no conveyance of any sort and I really expected one. I wish to get to Mr. Jonathan K. McGuire's.”
”Oh!”
The girl had been examining Peter furtively, as though trying vainly to place him definitely in her mental collection of human bipeds. Now she stared at him with interest.
”Oh, you're goin' to McGuire's!”
Peter nodded. ”If I can ever find the way.”
”You're one of the new detectives?”
”Detective!” Peter laughed. ”No. Not that I'm aware. I'm the new superintendent and forester.”
”Oh!”
The girl was visibly impressed, but a tiny frown puckered her brow.
”What's a forester?” she asked.
”A fellow who looks after the forests.”
”The forests don't need any lookin' after out here in the barrens. They just grow.”
”I'm going to teach them to grow better.”
The girl looked at him for a long moment of suspicion. She had taken off her hat and the ruddy sunlight behind her made a golden halo all about her head. Her hands he had noted were small, the fingers slender. Her nose was well shaped, her nostrils wide, the angle of her jaw firmly modeled and her slender figure beneath the absurd garments revealed both strength and grace. But he did not dare to stare at her too hard or to question her as to her garments. For all that Peter knew it might be the custom of Burlington County for women to wear blue denim trousers.
And her next question took him off his guard.
”You city folk don't think much of yourselves, do you?”
”I don't exactly understand what you mean,” said Peter politely, marking the satirical note.
”To think you can make these trees grow better!” she sniffed.
”Oh, I'm just going to help them to help themselves.”
”That's G.o.d's job, Master.”
Peter smiled. She wouldn't have understood, he thought, so what was the use of explaining. There must have been a superior quality in Peter's smile, for the girl put on her hat and came down into the road.