“Can you curry?”
“No, but it isn’t much to carry a hide to the village to get it curried.”
“There’s one thing, Mr. Renfew, that I want to tell you,” said Mrs. Prescott, “that you wouldn’t be likely to think of, and that is to get a pig and have it in the pen when you get there. When we came on to this place we were eleven miles from neighbors, and you don’t know how much company and comfort it was to me when Mr. Prescott was away at his work and before we had so many children, to hear a pig squeal and to have him to feed; and so it is to have a cat or a dog. When we have no company of our own kind, we take to the dumb creatures.”
“Have you any pigs to spare, Mr. Prescott?”
“We’ve got a whole litter of late pigs and a dozen shoats, and there’s a black and white kitten you may have; and when you come with your woman we want you to come right here, because you’ll both be fatigued, and the wife won’t want to go right to cooking the first moment, and then you can take the kitten and the pigs along with you. I wish we had a puppy for you; a dog is valuable to a new settler as well as company.”
“I’ve got a dog at home if he has not forgotten me. I do not feel that I ought to put myself upon you; perhaps I shall have four oxen and other cattle when I come.”
“No matter if there’s ten oxen. Thank God there’s room enough in house and barn, and victuals enough, and nothing will suit the boys better than to wait on you. You must pass your word, and then we shall know, for the good Book says, ‘Better is a neighbor that is near, than a brother afar off.’”
James promised.
James reached home safely.