This argument was, as he knew by experience, conclusive, and he was always completely silenced by it.
"And who will my little Miles choose for a partner?" broke in Sir Everard; "it must be some very small girl, I think."
"I should like the little girl at the lodge, please, father, because she's the very only little girl I know who is smaller than me."
"Very well: then you are both provided. Charlie, you must come down to the Harvest Home, and see 'Up the middle and down again;' Humphrey struggling with his substantial partner, and Miles bringing up the rear with the 'very only little girl he knows who is smaller than him.'" The father's eye rested smiling on his two children as he pictured the sight to himself.
"And when may it be?" asked Humphrey. "Father, please settle a day for the harvest to begin."
"When the yellow corn is almost brown, you may settle a day for the harvest," answered his father. "I have a reaping-machine this year, and so it will soon be cut when once they begin."
"I shall come every day to these fields and see how it is getting on," said Miles.
"I know a much quicker way," said Humphrey, jumping down from the gate, and pulling up several ears of corn by the roots.