“I haven’t had to give up yet,” said the young man, quietly; “and I don’t think it’s likely any part of the course will be harder than the first two years.”
“Reckon your uncle don’t come down very heavy with the stamps yet,” said the preacher, grimly.
The young man flushed. “’Tisn’t my uncle’s business to send me to college,” he said; “I never asked him to.”
“That’s right, that’s right,” said the preacher, heartily. “I like your grit. For that matter, you might as well spend your breath trying to blow up a rain as trying to persuade him to spend any money on schooling that he didn’t haf to. But how did you make it? You must have found it hard pulling at first.”
“Oh, at first I sawed wood,” said the other, lightly, “and I’ll own that was hard pulling. Half a cord before breakfast is a pretty fair stint, but I managed to make it. After that ’twas different things. I never had any trouble getting work. It was one man’s horse and another man’s lawn, and in the spring I had a great run helping the women at house-cleaning. Got quite a reputation for laying carpets. This year there hasn’t been quite as much variety in my jobs, for I taught school in the winter.”
The preacher’s sallow face was tense and the shrewd gray eyes gleamed as he listened. “You’ll do, Mort Elwell!” he said. “If I was a betting man, I’d bet on you and take all the chances going.”
At that moment, Mrs. Elwell, who was standing in the kitchen doorway for a moment’s rest and coolness, was saying to Esther Northmore, with a little sigh, “I don’t wonder he had all he could do at house-cleaning. If he knew how I missed him last spring! There’s nobody ’round here that can put down carpets equal to him.” And then she sighed again, this time more heavily. Every one knew that if she had her way, her husband’s nephew, who had grown up as one of their own family, would not be working his way through college in this stern fashion.
As for Morton himself, perhaps, being a young fellow not much given to talking of his private affairs in public, he was glad to see a stream of men issuing just then from the house, and it was but a few minutes later when a second call summoned him and his fellows to their places.
It was hardly an hour that the wheels of the great machine stood still. At the end of that time the workers were all at their places again. And now that the masculine appetites were satisfied, the women sat down to eat, an occupation which they prolonged far beyond the time of their predecessors. To the Northmore girls, indeed, it seemed as if it would never be over, but there came an end to it at last, and even to the washing of the dishes.
Esther would not consent to the proposal of the women that they should do the work without her, but Kate—with better wisdom perhaps—accepted it with the frankest pleasure. She was a girl who had a healthy curiosity about everything that went on around her, and no one was surprised to see her presently standing in the field, beside the engine that made the wheels of the threshing machine go round, getting points from the man in charge as to how they did it. After that an invitation from Morton Elwell, who was on the feed board, to come up and watch the work from that point was instantly accepted, amid the laughing approval of the crowd. For her sake the speed of the work was slackened a little, the bundles were thrown from the loaded wagon more slowly, and Morton found time, while cutting their bands and thrusting them in at their place, to answer all her questions.