“You can find plenty of customers, Mrs. Jordan,” said Mr. Bentley. “There is a great scarcity of persons who can sew for us in our neighborhood just now. Miss Grant got married last fall and came to town to live, and Mrs. Larkins is too old to sew, so there is only Miss Thompson left, and she hasn’t time to give everyone, so you’ll find plenty to do if you want it, and thankful enough the women will be not to have to traipse up to town every time a dress is to be made.”
Such a Glad Mother
And therefore a few weeks later, when strawberries were gone and shining blackberries grew along the hedgerows, when early apples were ripening in the orchards and huge watermelons were bringing a promise of heavy loads for the market, the Jordans came to their new home, their furniture having gone down the day before, free of charge, on Mr. Bentley’s “bug-eye.”
A regular surprise party there was to receive them—all the Welches and all the Bentleys. The dear collie puppy was made over to Ben by Joe Welch; Molly’s heifer lowed in the cowshed; ten fine hens and two pretty roosters strutted about in the little back yard; Mrs. Welch’s fat pig grunted in a new sty, and between smiles and tears, Mrs. Jordan said that she had never seen any but a minister’s family so supplied with good things.
The next year Benny was not among the pickers; he was going to the district school with Kitty, whose pale cheeks had gained a wild rose hue. And Benny had a little garden of his own, a garden in which he took much pride, for it had been planted and tended by himself alone. The rows of radishes and lettuce were, to be sure, rather uneven, and the corn in some places had refused to come up at all, but it was a very fair beginning for a little boy, and showed what might be expected later.
Mr. Welch says some day when Joe goes to the city to live he shall want a clerk in his store, and Mr. Bentley says some day he shall want an overseer on his farm. Therefore Benny finds it a rather difficult matter to decide which of these two opportunities shall be his to take.
Kitty, however, settled it for him one evening when they were sitting out on their little vine-covered porch. “I think,” she said, “that you’d better go to Mr. Welch’s first, ’cause he was your first friend, and when you have learned all about storekeeping you can go to Mr. Bentley and manage his farm, and Miss Molly’s husband can be in Mr. Welch’s store.” Who Miss Molly’s husband is to be has not yet been decided, but no doubt when he does appear he will be glad to have his future so plainly set before him.
“That’s a right good plan,” was Benny’s reply to his sister.