“Good morning, Mr. Borden,” responded Mrs. Richards, advancing to the door and drying her arms on a towel as she did so. There was no apology for being found doing this, and simply and cordially she said, “Won’t you come in?”
“Thank you,” replied Mr. Borden. “I think I understand what it means to be interrupted in a busy hour. No, we’ll not come in, but if you don’t object we’ll take a walk about your place and look up the boys.”
“They are in the field, yonder,” she said pointing to a distant part of the little farm. “We call it the ten-acre lot.”
“They appear to be busy too,” suggested Mr. Borden.
“They are, but not too busy to see their friends. I’ll call them,” she added as she reached for a long tin horn that was hanging on the kitchen wall.
“No! not by any means!” said Mr. Borden hastily. “Don’t disturb the boys. We shall find them easily. It is all slightly different from what I find in my office,” he added smilingly. “There, I’m afraid the boys are more likely to stop work before the horn sounds.”
“My boys are good workers—they have to be,” said Mrs. Richards simply.
“Yes, I understand. It is hard when the head of the family is gone.”
“It isn’t that only, though of course Dan and Tom feel more responsibility than they would if their father had lived. But they are both interested in the farm, though Dan is interested in his books too.”
“Which is he more interested in—the farm or his books?”