“You are needed at home, Joe,” spoke up Mary Little; “let me go. You know I am stronger than you.”
A short discussion followed, when it was decided that Mary should go, and she declared that she was ready to go at once.
“You can ride down with me,” said the doctor. “You will need different clothes, but I think Mrs. Cornhill will fit you out in fine shape. So jump in and we will drive down there immediately. I will send you up a load of goods this forenoon, Rob.”
The little band of colonists could not refrain from watching the kind-hearted doctor until his carriage had disappeared behind a row of bushes growing by the roadside, when they turned to their task of putting their new home into better shape with a hearty good will.
Water was brought from a neighboring spring, and cleaning was begun, while Rob, Larry, Tom and Jerry began to make such repairs in the way of fixing up doors and windows as they could. As little as they had to do with, before noon the old house presented a far more inviting appearance. But all this was new to the boys, and they soon tired of the work. Larry, though older and larger than even Rob, was the first to murmur.
“I didn’t suppose we’d come out here to break our backs lifting and working,” he said. “I don’t know how the rest of ye feel, but I’d ruther be back in Smoky Alley.”
“Oh, you’ll soon get used to it,” replied Joe. “I think it is just delightful. I never felt so well in my life. Come, Larry, be somebody. See how Rob has worked, and he——”
“Of course you’d stand up fer Rob. Nothing he does is bad, but as fer me——”
“Hold your tongue, Larry! We don’t want any grumbler in Break o’ Day!”
As the old red house was amply large for so many, it was decided to divide into three families, though much of the work would have to be done together, particularly the cooking. Mrs. Bayne and Rob, with the boys—Chick, Ruddy and Tony—were to form one family; Mrs. Willet and Joe another; while the Littles, Aunt Vinnie and her “boys,” Tom and Jerry, made up the third.