"I suppose you are right. But this looks like scrub."
"If it comes right, when it is cured you can knock a steer down with an ear of it without knocking a kernel off the cob."
"That will be some corn, boy!" chuckled Mr. Bronson.
Hiram came up from the first raking of this seed corn patch at noontime of this beautiful June day to find Miss Pringle and some of the younger girls transforming the first floor of the new house at Sunnyside into a ballroom. Busy as they were at this time on the farm, both Hiram and Orrin gave the girls a helping hand during the afternoon.
The carpenters built a small platform at the back of the house for the musicians. There was to be the piano brought over from Miss Pringle's, a violin, and a horn. Mr. Bronson had sent up a lot of Japanese lanterns, and these the boys strung as they were directed about the big, open floor and overhead. Chairs and benches were brought from the schoolhouse, half a mile or more away.
The veranda flooring had likewise been laid, and the carpenters had built wide, rough steps by which the veranda could easily be reached.
The girls swept out all the shavings and other litter, and the well-laid floor presented an attractive appearance to the eye of anybody who was fond of dancing. Just as the place was pronounced ready by Delia Pringle, and the girls and boys were retiring from the cleanly swept floor, Adam Banks appeared at the back door and coolly scrambled into the house.
"Let's see how it is laid," he said, grinning, and beginning to clog clumsily with his heavy boots.
He had been walking in muddy places, and every step he took on the clean boards rattled gravel and mud off his boots.
"You get out of here, Ad Banks," commanded Miss Pringle, starting after him with broom and dust pan. "You are the biggest nuisance that ever was."