"Of course not!"
"Where, then? What floor? His barn floor here at Sunnyside?"
"No, no! Of his new house. Don't you know how Dolan and MacComb are going to put up the house after your silo is done? They often build 'em so around here. They do not raise the whole frame at once, but lay the floor on the sills and then put up the scantlings for the frame, story by story—the outside walls first."
"I see. That is a common practice in some localities."
"It is here," returned Miss Pringle, "for we have a good many high winds. Come along one of those baby tornadoes, as they call 'em, and a regular house-frame would be torn all to pieces, unless it was well boarded in."
"I believe you!"
"Well. If it's nice weather, as it is likely to be in June when the floor's laid, we always try to have a dance. Christen the floor, as it were. In this Pringleton district we don't get to have a real good dance once in a dog's age. Carpet dances are nothing, and barn floors are so rough. So's the schoolhouse floor. There isn't a real hall nearer than Plympton."
"I see your idea, Miss Pringle," Hiram said; "and if I can get Mr. Bronson to agree—and I presume he will—I don't see why we shouldn't have a nice time. Miss Bronson will be home early in June, and I shouldn't wonder but that she would help."
"Little Lettie Bronson? Of course she will. We'll have a regular party," declared the enthusiastic Delia. "And I hope you'll ask me to dance, Mr. Strong."
"I promise to," laughed Hiram. "I ask you right now for at least two dances, and there's Orrin. I bet he can dance."