"It's agreeable to see that you think we district folks is folks," she said, very tartly indeed. "I'd some mistrusted the other day, but I guess now that you know what's what. Good-afternoon, all."
"Well, Sally Lou! Will you tell me what she meant?"
Sally Lou nodded wisely.
"Your pretty dress, I suspect. Didn't you hear Mrs. McCloskey praise it, too?"
"Oh!" And now Marian's face was very thoughtful indeed.
Late in the afternoon came the one disagreeable episode of the day.
The drainage district, upon which Roderick and Burford were employed, had become part of a huge league known as the Central Mississippi Drainage Association. This league had recently been organized. Its object was the cutting of protective ditches on a gigantic scale, and its annual expenditures for this work would run well past the million mark. Naturally there was strong competition between all the great engineering firms to win a favorable standing in the eyes of this new and powerful corporation. The Breckenridge Company, because of its superior record, was easily in the lead. None the less, as Rod had remarked a day or so before, it was up to every member of the Breckenridge Company, from Breck the Great down to the meekest cub engineer, to keep that lead.
Burford jeered mildly at Rod for taking his own small importance to the company so seriously.
"Just you wait and see," retorted Roderick.
"Oh, I'll wait, all right," laughed Burford. To-day, however, he was destined to see; and to see almost too clearly for his own peace of mind.