“But you’ll not. This gardening is free-will work.�
“Yes.� Mrs. Osborne agreed. “And we’ve always taken the stand that after the children do their regular home work, their spare time is their own. But, if Dick could be persuaded, influenced——� She looked hopefully at Black Mayo. “You can do anything with him,� she said. “Your word is law and gospel to all the Village young folks.�
“I refuse to be flattered into coercing Dick,� laughed Black Mayo. “If you want him spoken to, my dear Miranda, speak to him yourself.� He leaned back against the porch post, stretched out his long legs, and then twisted them comfortably together. “Speak to your own erring boy!�
“I have done it,� she said. “I tried to shame him just now. I reminded him how David and Patsy and even little Sweet William are working to raise food for the hungry, suffering world. I told him about the Richmond Boy Scouts who are going on farms, to save the potato crop.�
“And he refused to be shamed?�
“He cocked up his head, with that superior, self-satisfied air—oh, big as he is, I want to slap him when he does that!—and said, ‘It’s a nice little thing David and Patsy and the others are doing—the best they can, I reckon. But I’d rather do a big thing; something to get a lot of money, enough to buy a whole Liberty Bond at a whop.’ And before I could get my wits together to answer that amazing foolishness, he said he’d finished his tasks, hoed the beans, and brought in stove wood, and couldn’t he go. And off he went. What would you do, Mayo?�
“I think I’d do nothing, Miranda,� her cousin replied. “A boy’s got to have his adventures. And Dick’s a fellow that can stand a lot of letting alone. If he’s on the wrong track, he’s got sense enough to find it out and get on the right one. Don’t worry, Miranda. Will you tell David he can get one of my plows any day he wants it? And don’t you worry about Dick, Miranda,� he repeated, untwining his long legs and getting up.
As he started down the walk, Mrs. Osborne put aside her work and went out to the kitchen, a one-roomed cabin behind the Roost dwelling-rooms, to speak to Emma.
The old woman was standing at the door, looking worried and grum.
“Why, Emma, you haven’t kindled your fire!� Mrs. Osborne exclaimed.