Part 17 (1/2)
They haven't paid enough attention to the small farmers. Of course, they try out some good things and publish bulletins, but the farmers ought to _know_ how, by certain scientific changes, the productiveness of the land can be doubled! Take Judson, here. He's been farming this whole place just the way his grandfather did before him! He's read about new-fangled things, but he's afraid to try them--he doesn't know how to begin! Think how many Judsons there are all over the world! So I'm trying to show him by actually working out some experiments I've tested. If it's a success, if his account at the bank at North Hero shows it at the end of the season--why, there isn't anything Judson will be afraid to try. And think what it would mean to this country if it had a million farmers like Judson! And see how easily they can be shown!”
Nancy's face was alight with enthusiasm. With her vivid imagination she pictured a glorious army of Peter Hydes going out over the land, rescuing the poor farmers, putting new weapons into their hands!
”It's wonderful! And it's--brave!” she added, ”because it isn't as if you went off with a whole lot of others with bands and flags flying!”
She was suddenly struck with remorse that she had, in her heart, so wronged Peter Hyde! She had thought him a slacker when he had shouldered the harder task! Something in the earnestness still reflected on his face made her own her guilt.
”I can't be glad _enough_ you've told me all this! I didn't know! I never lived in the country. I just thought things to eat grew up any old way. And all this time I have been thinking horrid things about you because I thought you hadn't gone to war! I thought, maybe, you were way off up here to escape the feeling everyone had for slackers!
You can imagine, now, when I see what you really _are_ doing, how ashamed I feel! Will you forgive me?”
Peter's frank amus.e.m.e.nt made Nancy feel very uncomfortable and small.
But then she deserved it! He held out his hand as a sign of his forgiveness. There was still laughter in his eyes as he regarded her.
”I suppose that was very natural! Most of the young fellows you know must have gone over!” he said, seriously enough.
She wanted very much to tell him of her father--how he had followed the men over the top; how he had worked day after day getting the stories back to the people at home and spent night after night tracing the ”missing,” or writing letters for the boys who never got further back than the first dressing-stations and who wanted mothers and fathers and sweethearts to know that they'd had their chance and had made the most of it! But she couldn't, for she was supposed to be Anne and Anne's father had died when she was a little girl.
She told him of a few of the college men she had known, who had gone, eagerly, at the first call.
”They didn't even want to wait to get commissions! _They_ just wanted to fight!”
The revelation of Peter Hyde made her think of Claire's brother. She told him about Claire and Anne--she called Anne, vaguely, ”another girl.” ”Claire's a darling and we just love her, but we can't _abide_ her brother! Of course it's not reasonable, because we've never laid eyes on him, but we've heard enough from Claire to know just what he's like. I suppose the war made a few like him--he was brave enough over there and lucky to have all his recommendations recognized, but it made him _so_ conceited! He came back here and just strutted around, everywhere. Claire says her mother's friends used to have _teas_ for him--he'd go to them and speak and show his medals! Claire was mad over him. She was so disappointed because I came here instead of going to Merrycliffe. But I couldn't see myself spending my time petting her beloved Lion! I knew I'd be rude and say just what I thought.”
Nancy and Peter were sitting upon the stump of a tree near the cliff.
Peter suddenly rose and walked to the edge--his back square to Nancy.
After a moment he turned.
”Thought I heard something down there,” he explained, at her questioning glance. ”Don't blame you for disliking that sort--like Claire's brother! They're a rummy kind! I had a friend a lot like him. But--maybe, it wasn't all his fault--about the teas and things!
Maybe his mother got 'em started and he didn't want to hurt her!”
It was like Peter Hyde, so gentle with children and animals, to stand up now for even Barry Wallace's kind.
”You're just like Dad,” Nancy cried warmly, then stopped, a little frightened. But of course Peter had not been in Freedom long enough to know anything about the Leavitts.
He bowed with great ceremony, one hand over his heart.
”If Dad's like daughter, I thank you for the compliment. Now, if you will linger longer with me I'd like to show you Mrs. Sally and her babies. Sally is my experimental pig. I've built a piggery for her with a plunge and a sunken garden, and if you don't declare that Sally enjoys such improved surroundings, I'll know my whole summer's work's a failure.”
Nancy walked over the rough ground toward the barns with a light heart.
She had a delightful sense of being ”pals” with this new Peter Hyde--who, while the Barry Wallaces were swaggering around with their medals, was up here in an out-of-the-way corner of the nation, fighting a new sort of a fight! He actually _wanted_ her approval of his new piggery!
CHAPTER XVI
PETER LENDS A HAND
It was quite natural that Nancy should take her problems to Peter Hyde.
More correctly, she did not take them--Peter Hyde discovered them when, a few days later, he found Nancy alone in her Bird's-nest, completely surrounded by sheets of paper, a frown wrinkling her entire face, furiously chewing one end of her pencil.