“I guess you'd better step inside my boat, if it's big enough,” said Peter, “but it's sort of mussy. Maybe you'd like to wait out here 'til I sweep out. I been whittlin' all morning.”
“We will go in just as it is,” said Mrs. Montgomery promptly. “I want to see where you work, just as it is when you work.”
Peter looked at her with surprise.
“You ain't mistook in the man you're lookin' for, are you, ma'am?” He asked. “I'm Peter Lane. I don't work in this boat. Lately I've been workin' up at the farmer's, sawin' wood.”
Mrs. Montgomery laughed delightedly, and Peter, looking into her eyes, grinned. He liked this large, wholesome woman.
“You are the man!” said Mrs. Montgomery gaily. “And since Mrs. Vandyne won't introduce me, I'll introduce myself.”
Peter was justified in his doubts regarding the capacity of his boat, and the farmer, after trying to feel comfortable inside, went out and sat on the edge of the deck. The shavings on the floor, the wooden-spoons (there were but three or four), the boat itself—when she learned Peter had built it himself—all delighted her. She asked innumerable questions that would have been impertinent but for her kindly smile, and she was delighted when she learned that Peter had but one blanket, which was his coat by day and his bed-clothing by night. But more than all else she liked Peter's kindly eyes. She explained, in detail, the object of their visit, and Peter listened politely.
“It's right kind of you to come down so far,” he said when he had heard, “but I guess I'll have to refuse you, Mrs. Montgomery. I don't seem to have no desire to make no more funny toys. I guess I won't.”
“I can understand the feeling perfectly,” said Mrs. Montgomery, too wise to try coaxing. “You have an artist's reluctance to undertake for pay what you have done for pleasure only.”
“It ain't that,” said Peter. “I just whittled out them toys for a little feller I had here, because he used to laugh at them. That's all I done it for, and since he ain't here to laugh, it don't seem as if I could get the grin into them. I don't know as I can explain; I don't know as you could understand if I did—”