Part 26 (1/2)

”But how about your friends, Polly?”

”You know as well as I that we haven't lost a friend by living out here, and that we've tied some of them closer. No, sir! No more city life for me. It may do for young people, who don't know better, but not for me.

It's too restricted, and there's not enough excitement.”

”Country life fits us like paper on the wall,” said I, ”but how about the youngsters? If we insist on keeping children, we must take them into our scheme of life.”

”Of course we must, but children are an unknown quant.i.ty. They are _x_ in the domestic problem, and we cannot tell what they stand for until the problem is worked out. I don't see why we can't find the value of _x_ in the country as easily as in the city. They have had city and school life, now let them see country life; the _x_ will stand for wide experience at least.”

”Jane likes it thus far,” said I, ”and I think she will continue; but I don't feel so sure about Jack.”

”You're as blind as a bat--or a man. Jane loves country life because she's young and growing; but there's a subconscious sense which tells her that she's simply fitting herself to be carried off by that handsome giant, Jim Jarvis. She doesn't know it, but it's the truth all the same, and it will come as sure as tide; and when it does come, her life will be run into other moulds than we have made, no matter how carefully.”

”I wonder where this modern Hercules is most vulnerable. I'll slay him if I find him mousing around my Jane.”

”You will slay nothing, Mr. Headman, and you know it; you will just take what's coming to you, as others have done since the world was young.”

”Well, I give fair warning; it's 'hands off Jane,' for lo, these many years, or some one will be brewing 'harm tea' for himself.”

”You bark so loud no one will believe you can bite,” said this saucy, match-making mother.

”How about Jack?” said I. ”Have you settled the moulds he is to be run in?”

”Not entirely; but I am not as one without hope. Jack will be through college in June, and will go abroad with us for July and August; he will be as busy as possible with the miners from the moment he comes back; he is much in love with Jessie, the Gordon's have no other child, the property is large, Homestead Farm is only three miles, and--”

”Slow up, Polly! Slow up! Your main line is all right, but your terminal facilities are bad. Jack is to be educated, travelled, employed, engaged, married, endowed with Homestead Farm, and all that; but you mustn't kill off the Gordons. I swing the red lantern in front of that train of thought. Let Jack and Jessie wait till we are through with Four Oaks and the Gordons have no further use for Homestead Farm, before thinking of coupling that property on to this.”

”Don't be a greater goose than you can help,” said Polly. ”You know what I mean. Men are so short-sighted! Laura says, 'the Headman ought to have a small dog and a long stick'; but no matter, I'll keep an eye on the children, and you needn't worry about country life for them. They'll take to it kindly.”

”Well, they ought to, if they have any appreciation of the fitness of things. Did you ever see weather made to order before? I feel as if I had been measured for it.”

”It suits my garden down to the ground,” said Polly, who hates slang.

”It was planned for the farmer, madam. If it happens to fit the rose-garden mistress, it is a detail for you to note and be thankful for, but the great things are outside the rose gardens. Look at that corn-field! A crow could hide in it anywhere.”

”What have crows hiding got to do with corn, I'd like to know?”

”When I was a boy the farmers used to say, 'If it will cover a crow's back on the Fourth of July, it will make good corn,' and I am farmering with old saws when I can't find new ones.”

”It's all of three weeks yet to the Fourth of July, and your corn will cover a turkey by that time.”

”I hope so, but we shan't be here to see it, more's the pity, as Sir Tom would say.”

”Do you know, Kate says she won't go over. She doesn't think it would pay for so short a trip. Why do you insist upon eight weeks?”

”Well, now, I like that! When did I ever insist on anything, Mrs.

Williams? Not since I knew you well, did I? But be honest, Polly. Who has done the cutting down of this trip? You and the youngsters may stay as long as you please, but I will be back here September 1st unless the _Normania_ breaks a shaft.”

”I wish we could go _over_ on a German boat. I hate the Cunarders.”