- [CHAPTER I—HARVEST AT THE FARM]
- [CHAPTER II—TALKING IT OVER]
- [CHAPTER III—BETWEEN TIMES]
- [CHAPTER IV—AT THE OLD PLACE]
- [CHAPTER V—AUNT KATHARINE SAXON]
- [CHAPTER VI—AUNT KATHARINE—CONTINUED]
- [CHAPTER VII—HUCKLEBERRYING]
- [CHAPTER VIII—A PAIR OF CALLS]
- [CHAPTER IX—A GLIMPSE FROM THE INSIDE]
- [CHAPTER X—SOME BITS OF POETRY]
- [CHAPTER XI—AN OUTING AND AN INVITATION]
- [CHAPTER XII—WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK]
- [CHAPTER XIII—INTO THE WEST AGAIN]
- [CHAPTER XIV—THE NABOB MAKES AN IMPRESSION]
- [CHAPTER XV—ESTHER GOES TO PRAYER-MEETING]
- [CHAPTER XVI—IN WHICH SEVERAL PEOPLE GET HOME]
ILLUSTRATIONS
- [“Morton found time to answer all her questions”]
- [“He leaned on the gate when he had opened it for the girls”]
- [“She opened the door in person”]
- [“Tom and Kate watched them go”]
- [“‘It has been delightful to see you in this lovely old home’”]
[CHAPTER I—HARVEST AT THE FARM]
Just how Dr. Philip Northmore came to be the owner of a farm had never been quite clear to his fellow-townsmen. That he had bought it—that pretty stretch of upland five miles from Rushmore—in some settlement with a friend, who owed him more money than he could ever pay, was the open fact, but how the doctor had believed it to be a good investment for himself was the question. The opportunity to pay interest on a mortgage and make improvements on those charming acres at the expense of his modest professional income was the main part of what he got out of it. The doctor, as everybody knew, had no genius for making money.
However, he had never lamented his purchase. On the principle perhaps which makes the child who draws most heavily on parental care the object of dearest affection, this particular possession seemed to be the one on which the good doctor prided himself most. Its fine location and natural beauty were points on which he grew eloquent, and he sometimes referred to its peaceful cultivation as the employment in which he hoped to spend his own declining years, an expectation which it is safe to say none of his acquaintances shared with him.
So much for Dr. Northmore’s interest in the farm. It had a peculiar interest for the feminine part of his household in the early days of July, when wheat harvest had come and the threshing machine was abroad in the land. It was too much to expect of Jake Erlock, the tenant at the farm, who, since his wife’s death had lived there alone, that he would provide meals for the score of threshers who would bring the harvesting appetite to the work of the great day. Clearly this fell to the Northmores, and the doctor’s wife had risen to the part with her own characteristic energy. But for once, on the very eve of the threshing, she found herself facing a sudden embarrassment. Relatives from a distance had made their unexpected appearance as guests at her house, and to leave them behind, or take them into the crowded doings at the farm, seemed alike impossible. The prompt proposal of her daughters, that they, with the combined wisdom of their seventeen and nineteen years, should manage the harvest dinner, hardly seemed a plan to be adopted, and would have found scant attention but for the unlooked-for support it received from one of the neighbors.
“Now why don’t you let ’em do it?” said Mrs. Elwell, who had happened in at the doctor’s an hour after the arrival of the guests. “You’ve got everything planned out, of course, and there’ll be lots of the neighbor women in to help. There always is.”