Sam threw up his head and laughed aloud. He was a confirmed old bachelor and did not, as he expressed it, "like the ways of women."
"Ah, missy, I'll wait till you set the example."
"Oh, but I don't mean to marry at all. I shall be like Mona. Cook told Annie the other day that Mona was going to marry Captain Willoughby and I told Mona, and she was very angry and then she laughed and said that cook had already married her to over a dozen people. I don't quite know what she meant—but I think you ought to marry, Sam, and cook thinks so too. She says a house isn't a home without a woman!"
Sam laughed again.
"A woman, missy, is an ork'ard customer to deal with. There is smiles, 'tis true, but then there's tears, an' I can't abide 'em! An' there's a great chatteration, and there's a spendin', not so much in pots an' pans an' good wholesome food, but in ribbons an' silks an' finery. An' many a maid turns her man to drink, from her contrary tempers. Best be wi'out them, I say, an' so do fayther."
They talked away till tea was over, and then Jill accompanied old Mr. Stone into the back garden.
He pointed out to her row after row of his fine cabbages.
"One hundred and fifty-two, missy, an' all sowed from seed, an' I've tended 'em like chillen."
Jill walked up and down amongst the cabbages with a thoughtful air. Suddenly she stood still, seized with an inspiration.