“I rather think an oral question that was put to me helped me in my examination,” said Morton, a gleam of amused remembrance coming into his eyes. “Did I ever tell you about that? I had just finished one set of papers and gone up to the desk for another, when one of the examiners, a dry, shrewd-looking old fellow, leaned over and put this question to me: ‘When turkeys are six and three-fourths dollars per dozen, how many may be had for two dollars eighty-one cents and one-fourth?’”
“The mean thing!” ejaculated Kate. “He didn’t expect you to figure that out in your head, right then and there, did he?”
“He expected an answer,” said Morton, “and do you know, as good luck would have it, I hit it at the first shot, and gave it to him in a quarter of a minute. I told him five, and that was right.”
“Well,” gasped the doctor, “talk about lightning calculators!”
“But I didn’t calculate it,” laughed the young man. “I told you ’twas luck. You see I knew the answer, being turkeys, must be a whole number, and the sum named was less than half the price of a dozen, so it couldn’t be six, and I took the chances on five. The man that asked the question saw through it, of course, and I believe he sort of liked me after that. But look here, who cares about county examinations or what I did last winter? I want to hear about this summer, and how you liked New England. Start in, Kate, and tell me everything.”
“‘Only that and nothing more?’” she said, lifting her hands. “Why, I intend to give out my experiences sparingly, and embellish my conversation with them for the rest of my life. But we did have a glorious time—I’ll tell you so much. And New England’s great. If you’ve any doubts on that point you may as well give them up right here and now. It’s funny, some of it, of course; the little fields, and the stone walls, and the ox-teams—but you get used to those things, you know; and the people are nice. It’s the next best thing to living out here—it really is—to live in the Old Bay State, as grandfather calls it.”
And then, with an abandon which hardly tallied with her avowed intention to keep some capital for future use, she threw herself into the doings on the old farm, the attractions of New England villages, and the delights—oh! the delights of Boston and the sea, with his eager questions drawing her on and fresh items suggesting themselves at every turn.
It lengthened itself into a long delicious evening, and after a little the young people had it all to themselves, for the doctor was called off, and not to a case of apoplexy either, only to a child who had put a button into his ear; and a neighbor dropped in, to whose troubles Mrs. Northmore must give her sympathizing attention.
There was one subject on which the young man’s interest showed itself keen at a score of points in the course of Kate’s vivacious talk. Did Esther look at this and that as her sister did? Did she note the contrasts with a touch of pride and pleasure in the ways at home? Was she wholly glad to stay behind? And might it not be longer than the winter, much longer perhaps, before she would be at home again.
As to the last point Kate eagerly denied the danger. The other questions she answered more slowly, but with her usual frankness. Esther had been more in love with New England than herself; she had not criticised things—oh, dear, she had never quarrelled with anybody in behalf of her native state; and she had been perfectly delighted with the invitation to stay, there could be no doubt of that. And then she was silent, her face lengthening a little, as she thought of the one who gave the invitation.