"I rather guess it did, in the first instance. But now we plant it for ourselves. We don't, because father sold the two-acre lot, and they're bringing a street through. So now we have only the meadow."
Doris looked at the uncles, but she couldn't understand a word they were saying.
"Come!" Warren held out his hand.
"Put the big kitchen apron round her, Warren," said Betty, thinking of her silk gown.
He tied the apron round her neck and brought back the strings round her waist, so she was all covered. Then he found her a low chair, and poked the kitchen fire, putting on a pine log to make a nice blaze. He brought out from the shed a tub and a basket of ears of corn. Across the tub he laid the blade of an old saw and then sat on the end to keep it firm.
"Now you'll see business. Maybe you've never seen any corn before?"
She looked over in the basket, and then took up an ear with a mysterious expression.
"It won't bite you," he said laughingly.
"But how queer and hard, with all these little points," pinching them with her dainty fingers.
"Grains," he explained. "And a husk grows on the outside to keep it warm. When the winter is going to be very cold the husk is very thick."