“Not I; he hasn’t troubled me and I haven’t troubled him. Dod assured me that he was able to attend to his business as executor, and I therefore gracefully retired from the case. Of course the court will give him a reasonable time to get out, and though he’s no coward in most directions, he’s well aware of the attitude of the neighbors toward him and he’ll not be swaggering around much. You and Mr. Kennedy will be coming over to my clearing, Jimmy, and I’ll promise you as fine a johnny-cake as you ever ate at home.”
“We’ll come,” Jimmy answered, “after the women folk have had their time. Ay lad, but it’s buildin’ up the country is since the Injuns have come to terms, and we’ve the treaty of Greenville. The Range is fillin’ up, the Reserve north av us is like to see good times, and the Ohio Company south is runnin’ ’em close. We are in the thick av the immigration. I heerd, the time I went up to Marietta, that nigh twenty thousand had come along in the past year, and it’s towns they’ll be showin’ soon. Look at Marietta with her streets an’ her churches an’ a flock o’ people roamin’ about. We’ve got close to ceevilization, Mr. Willett. No more standin’ wid a musket in wan hand whilst ye plant yer corn wid the other.”
“That’s all very true, Jimmy; I am impressed by it every time I come this way. I realize that our own little township is growing by the number of new faces I meet on the road.”
“Thrue for ye. Weel, ‘it takes nae butter off my bannock’ to have them comin,’ for they open up the country, and the more the merrier.” He turned back to his forge, and Parker walked toward the house where he found Mrs. Kennedy busily sewing. Agnes was helping Polly at the dye-kettle; Margret, with the children around her, was playing school under the trees. Mr. Kennedy was at work in the garden, for, though this was considered the women’s province, since Jimmy’s arrival it had fallen to Fergus’s share.
It was a pleasant, busy scene and showed thrift and content and peace. In a sty back of the house grunted a sow and her young pigs; Agnes’s chickens crooned their sleepy song with much content among the dust-heaps which they sought out; a swarm of wild bees which Polly had hived, now quite at home, were droning about the garden beds. Two new rooms having been added, one above and one below, there was now sufficient space to house the two families comfortably. Jimmy had set up his forge and the place was frequented by those neighbors who had not a like convenience upon their own clearings, and it was quite a gathering-place for news-gatherers, though the clearings lay closer together around the little log church.
Mrs. Kennedy looked up with a smiling welcome, but she did not stop her swift stitches. “Good morning, stranger,” she said.
“I am something of a stranger,” the young man replied, coming in, “but it is not of choice that I am so, Mrs. Kennedy. I have come over to ask if you and Polly and Agnes will honor my little cabin this afternoon and take that long-promised supper with me. Jimmy says he and your husband will look after the children.”
“Yes? That is kind of Jimmy. They will be no trouble, however, for they are always good with Margret.”
“Where is Polly?”
“She and Agnes are at the dye-kettle. It seemed a fine day for the work. They are around at the back of the house.”