“Well, that’s the only redeeming feature about her. She does help Mother. Aunt Rebecca isn’t lazy. I’m glad to be able to say one nice thing about her. Apart from that she’s generally as Millie says, ‘actin’ like she ate wasps.’ But she can’t scare me. All her ranting goes in one ear and out the other.”
“Nothing there to stop it, eh, Phil?”
“Amanda! That from you! Now I know how Caesar felt when he saw Brutus with the mob.”
“It’s a case of ‘Cheer up, the worst is yet to come,’ I suppose, so you might as well smile.”
In this manner they bantered until they reached the Reist farmhouse. There the boy greeted the visitor politely, as his sister had done.
“My goodness,” was the aunt’s greeting to him, “you got an armful of books, too!”
“Yes. I’m going to be a lawyer, but I have to do a lot of hard studying before I get that far.”
“Umph, that’s nothin’ to brag about. I’d think more of you if you stayed home and helped Amos plant corn and potatoes or tobacco.”
“I’d never plant tobacco. Chewing and smoking are filthy habits and I’d never have the stuff grow on any farm I owned.”
“But the money, Philip, just think once of the money tobacco brings! But, ach, it’s for no use talkin’ farm to you. You got nothin’ but books in your head. How do you suppose this place is goin’ to be run about ten years from now if Amanda teaches and you turn lawyer? Amos is soon too old to work it and you can’t depend on hired help. Then what?”