"Why, yes, Jerry, seems to me you said so. 'Twas in that letter you had me write."
"Well," said Raven, "I want you to get at the river woods. I want 'em cleaned up. Couldn't you get somebody to help you? That man Tenney, how about him?"
Jerry, confronted by haste and emergency, two flying visitants he never could encounter adequately, opened his mouth and looked at Charlotte.
"Why, yes," said she. "He's a great hand to work. You said so yourself, Jerry, only last week."
"Then what if we should hire him?" said Raven. "What if I should go up and ask him now?"
Jerry was slowly coming to.
"He's been by here to-day," said he, "axe in his hand. Went as if he's sent for. Then he went back."
"Well, that was an hour or more ago," said Charlotte. "You says to me, 'Where's he be'n?' says you. Yes, he's got home long 'fore this. You'll find him some'r's round home."
"All right," said Raven. "Don't go up on the ridge again, Jerry. I want it left as it is."
He hurried out through the shed and Charlotte and Jerry exchanged glances, his entirely bemused and she sympathetically tender.