"Yes," agreed both boys eagerly, "that we must!"
But Billy's marrow was undisturbed. It continued to grow and ripen till the morning of the show, when Grandfer cut it and the boys conveyed it between them to the large tent which had been erected on the Vicarage lawn, under which most of the exhibits of flowers, fruit, and vegetables were already on the stalls.
Billy's marrow was put on a stall with a lot of others. The boys had the satisfaction of seeing, at a glance, that it was the best marrow there, for shape, colour, and size. An ill-kept, sullen-looking man who was standing near saw this, too. He shot a scowling look from one boy to the other, and moved away.
"That's Gibbs!" Harold whispered to Billy excitedly. "He's brought his marrow, but it's smaller than yours. I thought it was, but I couldn't be sure till I saw them together. Doesn't he look sold—and guilty?"
"Hush!" admonished Billy, "Someone may hear you. If we're right in what we think we can't prove it, you know."
Gibbs had slunk out of the tent and disappeared. He did not return when the exhibits were being judged, nor did he come near the show again. Apparently his whole interest in it had gone.
The show opened at two o'clock. It was well attended, nearly every one in the parish being present. Mrs. Brown, who seldom left home, was there under the escort of her husband and Billy. She was in high good humour, for Billy's marrow had won the prize; and when she came to the stall on which the wild flowers were being exhibited, there, in the centre, was a beautiful bouquet bearing a card on which was written: "First Prize—May Dingle." She felt, as she said, quite proud to be connected with two prize-winners.
The prizes were distributed by the Vicar. Next day all the vegetable exhibits, by agreement of the exhibitors, were packed carefully and sent off as a gift to the Fleet, whilst the flowers were returned to their owners. May gave her bouquet to her grandmother, and for several days it graced the round table in the middle of the parlour at Rowley Cottage.
Corn harvest was now commencing. Billy took great interest in Farmer Turpin's "reaper and binder," which he thought the most marvellous piece of machinery there could possibly be. One day it arrived to cut the corn in the fields near Rowley Cottage, and he spent hours in watching it as it worked, gathering the corn into a sheaf and cutting the stalks and tying them, then throwing the sheaf out on the ground, and going through the same programme continuously as it went on. Billy followed it till he was tired, then sat down on a big stone near the gateway leading into the road, and watched it from there.
So closely did it chain his attention that he failed to notice a khaki-clad figure coming towards him, and started up in joyful surprise when a well-remembered voice cried—