“Great guns, we are. It’s a grand State even if we could put it into a comer of Texas,” Bob replied sincerely.
“You ought to like it, your mother was brought up here, but goodness sakes, she went off when she wasn’t much more than a girl. She was married right here in the parlor. I can remember it just as if it was yesterday, then the pair of them drove away in the two seater with old shoes tied to the end. They did look handsome. Your pa was all spruced up—and the next year they were in Texas—”
“You boys coming?”
“Yes sir.”
As they went out onto the front piazza, the sun was setting and the sky was streaked with brilliant red and gold which shone magnificently through the trees. There was no doubting that the storm had been an actuality, for a deep stream was racing down the run-off toward the lake, and everywhere the place was strewn with leaves and branches that had been broken. The Rural Free Delivery Box was leaning wearily against a maple, as if the struggle to keep upright had been altogether too much. The three picked their way across the road with water dripping from trees and shrubs, and the ground soggy underfoot. They were soon past the garden, and at the further side they could see the foreign boy busy working, but this time his uncle was with him.
“Whoo-oo,” Bob called cheerfully. The boy straightened up and smiled, then he came toward them and they went to the ditch he had showed them earlier in the day. It was full to the top with water which was running off as hard as it could go, and in spite of the storm there was little more water on the bog than had been there at noon time.
“Huh!” Mr. Fenton gave a little grunt of astonishment.
“Looks as if it’s working all right, doesn’t it?” Jim remarked.
“It certainly does. It’ll be a great thing for me if he gets the place drained for that land is a piece of the best. Don’t see how he’s doing it. I had an expert engineer here to dry up that section and he couldn’t accomplish a thing. Said the only way was to ditch it to the lake, then fill in the hole, use a lot of lime, like a concrete mixer and bring the hill forward. A mighty expensive job it would have been and then part of the land wouldn’t be very good,” Mr. Fenton explained.
“Reckon this boy is some sort of wizard. He’s bewitching it,” Jim suggested.