"There's your brother," said Shirley, pointing to a figure coming down the lane.
"Rich isn't my brother—he's my pal," replied Warren. "And Mr. Hildreth is with him, so you'll have a chance to meet a real farmer and a good one."
"Then I can ask him about the insides of cats," was Sarah's rather disconcerting response.
CHAPTER V
DAYS OF DELIGHT
"You're the doctor's sisters," declared Mr. Hildreth when he was within earshot. Then, to Warren, "That row of onions isn't done."
Mr. Hildreth, the girls were to learn speedily, made statements. He did not ask questions. And usually his declarations stood unchallenged.
He was a tall, broad-shouldered man with a rather grim, weather-beaten face and shrewd blue eyes. A hard worker, his neighbors said, and accustomed to demanding, and receiving, the best from his helpers. He was intolerant of laziness—"shiftlessness" the country phrase ran—but he had the reputation of being a just taskmaster and he could be very kind.
"I'm going back and finish the onions now," said Warren. "I came down to let the cows out."