"Good-morning, Mrs. Norton."
"Good-morning, Mr. Hicks. Have you got all through with your work?"
"All except sewing on a few buttons. Ploughing is all done for the present, I guess."
"Mr. Hicks, we have been wondering whether you could do us a little favor. The ladies of the Chautauqua Circle have been studying geology,—the earth, you know,—and we needed some stones for specimens—samples. And of course stones are not very plentiful around here—"
"Why don't you go and take some out of Steve Brown's rockery? Help yourself, as God says."
"Why, that's just what we did do. We were passing there, and we each took one—without particularly thinking. They are lying behind Colonel Chase's big gate. We got them up there, but found they were rather heavy. Could we get you to haul them back for us?"
"I bet you could, Mrs. Norton. The next time I pass there with the wagon I 'll put them on. I don't suppose those stones are in any particular hurry, are they?"
"Well," said Mrs. Norton, taking thought, "I have been thinking that perhaps it would be just as well to get them back before he comes home. He is out at the Thompson ranch tending to those sheep again, you know."
"Did you hear whether any one went with him?"
"Well, no—er—yes. That is, I don't really know whether there is or not. I heard there was somebody out there."