The three stared up at him with laughing faces. “Buzzy Hancock,” exclaimed Tommy, “why didn’t you sing out to us before?”
“Wanted to hear what you had to say,” said Buzzy simply. “Thought maybe I’d get some good advice. And my first name’s Seth. Seth Guilford Trowbridge Hancock. I’m named for my grandfather. Sally called me Buzzy when I was a little kid, so I suppose that I’ll be that all my life.”
“Sally and Buzzy,” repeated Doris musingly, “when you’re really Sarah and Seth. Nicknames are queer, aren’t they? I think that babies should be called pet names till they’re old enough to choose their own. Still Seth’s a good name. It’s a name to grow up to, Buzzy. You ought to be stout and dignified, like Mr. Pickwick.”
“Guess I don’t know him, do I?” asked Buzzy. “Sally wants to be something too, but girls can’t do that. She wants to be a builder and look after land. She wants to go to the State Agricultural College too, and take the forestry course. Do you know what she does? She read some place that the chestnut trees were dying out, so she takes a pocketful of sound chestnuts with her whenever she goes out for a walk in the woods, and every once in a while she sticks her finger in the ground and plants a chestnut. What do you think of that?”
Kit drew in a deep breath.
“I think she’s wonderful. I don’t see why she can’t go to the State College if she likes, or why she can’t take the forestry course. It isn’t whether you’re a boy or a girl that matters in such things. It’s just whether you can do the work that counts.”
“She can shut her eyes and walk through the woods and tell the name of every tree just by feeling its leaves.”
Jean appeared on the back porch and called down to them to come up and wash for dinner. She stood there in the doorway for a minute after the rest had gone in, looking out at the fields highlighted by the sun. As she stood there Buzzy came up, looking as if there was something on his mind.
After a moment he said, “Jean, there’s going to be a barn dance up at the Grange Saturday night. I wondered if you’d like to go?”
“What? A barn dance? I’ve never been to one. I’d love to. What are they like?” said Jean all in one breath.