Volume I Part 52 (1/2)
It was rather a longish walk to uncle Joshua's, and hardly a word spoken on either side.
The old gentleman was ”to hum;” and while Fleda went back into some remote part of the house to see ”aunt Syra,” Mr. Rossitur set forth his errand.
”Well, and so you're looking for help ? eh?” said uncle Joshua, when he had heard him through.
”Yes, Sir ? I want help.”
”And a team too?”
”So I have said, Sir,” Mr. Rossitur answered rather shortly.
”Can you supply me?”
”Well, I don't know as I can,” said the old man, rubbing his hands slowly over his knees. ”You ha'n't got much done yet, I s'pose?”
”Nothing. I came the day before yesterday.”
”Land's in rather poor condition in some parts, aint it?”
”I really am not able to say, Sir, ? till I have seen it.”
”It ought to be,” said the old gentleman, shaking his head, ?
”the fellow that was there last didn't do right by it. He worked the land too hard, and didn't put on it anywhere near what he had ought to; I guess you'll find it pretty poor in some places. He was trying to get all he could out of it, I s'pose. There's a good deal of fencing to be done too, aint there?”
”All that there was, Sir, ? I have done none since I came.”
”Seth Plumfield got through ploughing yet?”
”We found him at it.”
”Ay, he's a smart man. What are you going to do, Mr. Rossitur, with that piece of marsh land that lies off to the south east of the barn, beyond the meadow, between the hills? I had just sich another, and I ?”
”Before I do anything with the wet land, Mr. ? I am so unhappy as to have forgotten your name ?”
”Springer, Sir,” said the old gentleman, ? ”Springer ? Joshua Springer. That is my name, Sir.”
”Mr. Springer, before I do anything with the wet land, I should like to have something growing on the dry; and as that is the present matter in hand, will you be so good as to let me know whether I can have your a.s.sistance.”
”Well, I don't know,” said the old gentleman; ”there aint anybody to send but my boy Lucas, and I don't know whether he would make up his mind to go or not.”
”Well, Sir!” said Mr. Rossitur, rising, ”in that case, I will bid you good morning. I am sorry to have given you the trouble.”
”Stop,” said the old man, ”stop a bit. Just sit down. I'll go in and see about it.”
Mr. Rossitur sat down, and uncle Joshua left him to go into the kitchen and consult his wife, without whose counsel, of late years especially, he rarely did anything. They never varied in opinion, but aunt Syra's wits supplied the steel edge to his heavy metal.
”I don't know but Lucas would as lieve go as not,” the old gentleman remarked on coming back from this sharpening process, ? ”and I can make out to spare him, I guess. You calculate to keep him, I s'pose?”
”Until this press is over; and perhaps longer, if I find he can do what I want.”