Volume I Part 51 (2/2)

”Yes, and I will not interrupt you but a minute. Mr.

Plumfield, I am in want of hands ? hands for this very business you are about, ploughing ? and Fleda says you know everybody; so I have come to ask if you can direct me.”

” Heads or hands, do you want?” said Seth, clearing his boot- sole from some superfluous soil upon the share of his plough.

”Why both, to tell you the truth. I want bands and teams, for that matter, for I have only two, and I suppose there is no time to be lost. And I want very much to get a person thoroughly acquainted with the business to go along with my man. He is an Irishman, and I am afraid not very well accustomed to the ways of doing things here.”

”Like enough,” said Seth; ” and the worst of 'em is, you can't learn 'em.”

”Well! ? can you help me?”

”Mr. Dougla.s.s!” said Seth, raising his voice to speak to one of his a.s.sistants who was approaching them ? ”Mr. Dougla.s.s!

you're holding that 'ere plough a little too obleekly for my grounds.”

”Very good, Mr. Plumfield!” said the person called upon, with a quick accent that intimated, ”If you don't know what is best, it is not my affair!” ? the voice very peculiar, seeming to come from no lower than the top of his throat, with a guttural roll of the words.

”Is that Earl Dougla.s.s?” said Fleda.

”You remember him?” said her cousin, smiling. ”He's just where he was, and his wife too. Well, Mr. Rossitur, 'tain't very easy to find what you want just at this season, when most folks have their hands full, and help is all taken up. I'll see if I can't come down and give you a lift myself with the ploughing, for a day or two, as I'm pretty beforehand with the spring, but you'll want more than that. I ain't sure ? I haven't more hands than I'll want myself, but I think it is possible Squire Springer may spare you one of his'n. He aint taking in any new land this year, and he's got things pretty snug; I guess he don't care to do any more than common, ?

anyhow, you might try. You know where uncle Joshua lives, Fleda? Well, Philetus ? what now?”

They had been slowly walking along the fence towards the furthest of Mr. Plumfield's coadjutors, upon whom his eye had been curiously fixed as he was speaking ? a young man who was an excellent sample of what is called ”the raw material.” He had just come to a sudden stop in the midst of the furrow when his employer called to him; and he answered, somewhat lack-a- daisically ?

”Why, I've broke this here clavis: I ha'n't touched anything nor nothing, and it broke right in teu!”

”What do you 'spose 'll be done now?” said Mr. Plumfield, gravely, going up to examine the fracture.

”Well, 't wa'n't none of my doings,” said the young man. ”I ha'n't touched anything nor nothing, and the mean thing broke right in teu. 'Tain't so handy as the old kind o' plough, by a long jump.”

”You go 'long down to the house and ask my mother for a new clavis; and talk about ploughs when you know how to hold 'em,”

said Mr. Plumfield.

”It don't look so difficult a matter,” said Mr. Rossitur, ?

”but I am a novice myself. What is the princ.i.p.al thing to be attended to in ploughing, Mr. Plumfield?”

There was a twinkle in Seth's eye, as he looked down upon a piece of straw he was breaking to bits, which Fleda, who could see, interpreted thoroughly.

”Well,” said he, looking up ? ”the breadth of the st.i.tches and the width and depth of the furrow must be regulated according to the nature of the soil and the lay of the ground, and what you're ploughing for. There's stubble-ploughing, and breaking up old leys, and ploughing for fallow crops, and ribbing, where the land has been some years in gra.s.s, and so on; and the plough must be geared accordingly, and so as not to take too much land nor go out of the land; and after that the best part of the work is to guide the plough right, and run the furrows straight and even.”

He spoke with the most impenetrable gravity, while Mr.

Rossitur looked blank and puzzled. Fleda could hardly keep her countenance.

”That row of poles,” said Mr. Rossitur, presently, ”are they to guide you in running the furrow straight?”

”Yes, Sir, they are to mark out the crown of the st.i.tch. I keep 'em right between the horses, and plough 'em down one after another. It's a kind of way country-folks play at nine- pins,” said Seth, with a glance half inquisitive, half sly, at his questioner.

Mr. Rossitur asked no more. Fleda felt a little uneasy again.

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