“Oh, that is nice. I like looking down across things. I shouldn’t like to live in a valley and always have to look up, you know.”
“The large building is the Academy,” said Ezra. “That is where we hold our meetings and gather together for all the best purposes of our little community-life.”
“Is it there that Madame Morozoff-Smith lives?” asked his wife.
“Her house is the one just opposite.”
“Oh, that big one! It is quite the largest in the village—the City, I mean.”
Ezra did not make any reply to this remark. He had never realised that Madame’s house was indeed the largest in their Community, and now he felt vexed that this fact should have been the first his wife noted.
A small boy with shining black face and shining white teeth, along with a yellow puppy, welcomed them.
“This is Napoleon Pompey,” said Ezra, with much decorum presenting the small darkie who grinned and bobbed his head. “And this is Diana,” pointing to the puppy that had come up to the bars along with the negro. Diana jumped upon her new mistress and left two black dust marks on her dress. Dust is black in London and on the western prairie, nowhere else.
“Oh, you dirty dog,” said the little bride, who was a very natty body.
“You’ll have to get used to dirt in all degrees out here, Ollie,” said her husband as he led her to the door. She looked like a little girl as she stood beside him, for he was tall and angular and long of leg. A sloping plank with battens nailed across it led to the door, there were no steps. As the pair entered, Napoleon Pompey and Diana took the horses and waggon to the stable and began respectively to unharness and worry them.