White Edith turned to Charlie See.
“If you really intend to buy a farm here you ought to be getting about it. You might wait too long, Mr. See.”
“Charlie. Exactly what do you mean by that remark, my fair-haired child?”
“Here! This has gone far enough!” declared Hob. “We men have got to stand together—or else pull stakes and go where the women cease from troubling and the weary are at rest. Don’t you let her threats get you rattled, Charlie See. We’ll protect you.”
“Silly! I meant, of course, that the Mexicans are not selling their lands cheaply now, as they used to do.”
“Not so you could notice it,” said Uncle Dan. “Those that wanted to sell, they’ve sold and gone, just about all of them. What few are left are the solid ones. Not half-bad neighbors either. Pretty good sort. They’re apt to stick.”
“Not long,” said Hobby rather sadly. “They’ll go, and we’ll go too, most of us. The big dam will be built, some time or other; we’ll be offered some real money. We’ll grab it and drift. Strangers will take comfort where we’ve grubbed out stumps. We are the scene shifters. The play will take place later. ’Sall right; I hope the actors get a hand. But I hate to think of strangers living—well, in this old house. Say, we’ve had some happy times here.”
“Won’t you please hush?” said Adam. “Why so doleful? There’s more happy times in stock. This bunch don’t have to move away. Why, when I get my gold mine in action we can all live happy ever after. To-morrow—”
“Hobby is right,” said Aunt Peg. “Pick your words as you please, bad luck or improvidence on the one side, thrift or greed on the other—yes, and as many more words of praise or blame as you care for; and the fact remains that the people who care for other things more than they do for money are slowly crowded out by the people who care more for money than for anything else.”
“Uncle Dan, is that why you grasping Scotchmen have crowded out the Irish round these parts?” inquired Charlie. “McClintock, MacCleod, Simpson, Forbes, Campbell, Monroe, Fenderson, Stewart, Buchanan—why, say, there’s a raft of you here; and across the river it is worse.”