“How’s that?”
“Nine little pigs! They came yesterday. They’re perfect beauties.”
The man laughed.
“What are you laughing about?” she demanded.
“The idea of you taking care of chickens and pigs and a horse!”
“I don’t see anything funny about it, and it’s lot of fun. Did you think I was too stupid?”
“I was just thinking what a change two months have made. What would you have done if you’d been left alone two months ago with a hundred hens, a horse, and ten pigs to care for?”
“The question then would have been what the hens, the horse, and the pigs would have done; but now I know pretty well what to do. The two letters I have to write are about the little pigs. I don’t know much about them, and so I am writing to Berkeley and Washington for the latest bulletins.”
“Why don’t you ask us?”
“Gracious, but I do! I am forever asking the colonel questions, and the boys at the hog house must hate to see me coming. I’ve spent hours in the office, reading Lovejoy and Colton; but I want something for ready reference. I’ve an idea that I can raise lots more hogs than I intended by fencing the orchard and growing alfalfa between the rows, for pasture. There’s something solid and substantial about hogs that suggests a bank balance even in the years when the orange crop may be short or a failure, or the market poor.”