“It’ll take hours and hours to get it done,� he said. “And then it would be too late to go where I’m going. Maybe I can work the potato patch after supper.�
“You can’t,� said David, who had a straightforward way of facing facts.
“Oh! maybe I can,� said Dick, who had a picturesque way of evading them. “You might help me. You might work on it awhile after dinner.�
“Thank you! I’ve something else to do. I’m going to harrow my corn acre. I want to plant it next week,� said David, who was a blue-ribbon member of the Boys’ Corn Club.
At the dinner table the boys were joined by Sweet William, Patsy, and Anne Lewis, a cousin who was spending her Easter holiday in The Village. The two girls watched Dick like hawks, and jumped up from the table as soon as he went out of the dining room. He hurried to the little upstairs room he shared with David that was called the “tumble-up room� because the steps were so steep. Presently he came down and showed off the things he was putting in his pockets—a candle, a box of matches, and a ball of stout twine. He sharpened his hatchet and fastened it to his belt.
“Yah! You wish you knew what that’s for,� he said, with a derisive face at Patsy and then at Anne.
He strutted across the yard toward the front gate, but he was not to march off in undisturbed triumph.
“Dick! uh Dick!� called his mother. “Remember you’ve your garden work to finish.�
“Yes’m.� He scowled, then he said doggedly: “There’s something else I’ve promised myself to do first.�
Anne and Patsy waited only to see that he turned up, not down, The Street; then they ran around The Back Way and came out just behind him at the church; there The Street turned to a road which led past the mill and on to Redville. Dick walked quickly, and the girls hurried after him; then he walked slowly, and they loitered so as to keep just behind him.