“It’s like mos’ t’ings, Janet—easy when you knows how to do ’em,” chuckled Rachel. “Now shove dat box away f’om the do’h of the coop so dem fowl kin run out in the mawnin’.”
“Why not tonight?” asked Belle.
“Oh, they’ve gone to roost before this,” said Janet. “They have been roosting all day, more or less, because they were in a dark house.”
Mrs. James picked up the hammer, and Rachel took the box of nails, and the two went back to the house, followed slowly by Belle and Frances who were talking over the recent carpenter work. Janet begged Norma to help her feed the pigs that night so she could finish before darkness fell.
“I won’t take the time to go to the kitchen and cook them a pot of mush tonight,” said Janet, as she led the way to the pig-pen. “But I’ll give them an extra measure of shorts and corn, for this once.”
The grain had been delivered the day before but Janet had not given the pigs more than a taste of it. Tonight, however, she supplied them liberally with corn and other grain until they actually ate slowly towards the last.
At supper, that night, which was very late because of the carpenter work, Norma spoke of the dry sandy quality of the flower-beds. “Mrs. Tompkins told me to examine the soil and if it was too dry to be sure and mix a good rich compost with the dry and lumpy dirt.”
“If you find the soil is too sandy, Norma, what did you plan to do about securing the compost?” asked Mrs. James.
“I was wondering if Natalie had any left from the cart-load Farmer Ames delivered here for the gardens,” replied Norma.
“No, we used every bit we had for the small vegetables,” explained Mrs. James. “But Natalie could use some more, to the best advantage, on the corn-field and the new garden she proposes to have Ames plough. So you two girls might share the costs for a load from Ames’ farm.”