"It's more than neat, it's positively ornamental," she replied, "but even your success doesn't explain your motive."
"Well, the truth is—if you will have it—I needed exercise."
"You might have walked."
"That doesn't reach the shoulders—there's the trouble."
She laughed with an easy friendliness which struck him as belonging to her gallant manner.
"Oh, I assure you I shan't insist upon a reason, I'm too much obliged to you," she returned, coming inside the gate. "Indeed, I'm too good a farmer, I believe, to insist upon a reason anyway. Providence disposes and I accept with thanks. I may wish, though, that the coloured population shared your leaning toward the spade. By the way, I see it isn't mine. It looks too shiny."
"I borrowed it from Mrs. Twine, and it is my suspicion that she scrubs it every night."
"In that case I wonder that she lets it go out to other people's gardens."
"She doesn't usually," he laughed as he spoke, "but you see I am a very useful person to Mrs. Twine. She talks at her husband by way of me."
"Oh, I see," said Emily. "Well, I'm much obliged to her."