Jack asked who Mr. Hildreth was and Sarah answered that he was the tenant farmer.
"And his wife is the tenant farmeress," said Sarah importantly. "They live in another house and plant things—Hugh told me."
"Yes'm, I don't doubt it," agreed Jack, when he had assimilated this remarkable information, "but how come a farmer and a farmeress have time to give lessons in fishing?"
Rosemary began on the last knot in the line. "Don't be silly, Jack," she begged. "There'll be two boys there—Mrs. Hildreth says her husband gets two students from the State Agricultural College to help him every summer. They'll want to go fishing and Sarah and I can go along."
"When you farm, you farm," said Jack sententiously. "You don't hoe the potatoes one day and then go fishing for a week. But I may be wrong at that and if you find Mr. Hildreth needs an extra hired man, Rosemary, one to go fishing, I mean, ask him to send for me. I'll come right up and fish and look after the garden in my odd moments."
"Hugh's coming to spend two weeks in August," announced Sarah. "And he'll come out as many week-ends as he can; will you really come, Jack?"
"I always did yearn to be a hired man," Jack answered earnestly, "and they tell us there is no time like the present to put one's ambition in training. I'm awfully afraid I'll have to earn my living after I leave school and a nice trade, like that of hired man, might be useful in my later life. I'll think it over and let you know, Sarah; but don't let Mr. Hildreth build on my coming—I can't face his grief and disappointment in case I fail to turn up."
"You think you're smart!" was Sarah's retort and Rosemary said to herself that it was impossible to tell when Jack was in earnest.
Winnie came out and told them that lunch was ready just then, and Jack took his fishing tackle and retreated to his own home which was next door, first thanking Rosemary fervently for the unknotted line she handed him.
There were times during the days of preparation for the eventful Monday when Mrs. Willis wondered whether they were really wise to go to so much trouble, times when she thought wearily that her own home, noisy as it might be, would be far preferable to the effort required to adapt her family to a new environment.