CHAPTER XXV
HOW TOBY WON HIS HERITAGE
Mrs. Ritchie was hoeing that afternoon in her vegetable garden, which adjoined the spacious farmhouse where she resided. She was attired in a faded calico dress and a weatherworn sunbonnet, and her heavy leather shoes were rusty and clogged by constant contact with the soil.
There were several servants upon the plantation, and they were afforded an excellent example of industry by their mistress, who “worked like a hired man” herself and made everyone around her labor just as energetically.
The arrival of Lawyer Kellogg on his bicycle, which he had ridden over from Riverdale, did not interrupt Mrs. Ritchie’s task. She merely gave her attorney an ungracious nod and said: “Well?”
“I’ve come over to see you about the trial,” he announced. “It begins next Thursday, at Bayport, and I must know exactly what you want to do about Toby Clark.”
“Give him a long sentence—the longer the better.”
“He is sure to get that if we prove him guilty.”
She looked at him suspiciously.
“Why do you say ‘if’?” she asked.
Kellogg smiled.