Then the chicks were selected and Mr. Ames found a hen that was wanting to set on a nest of eggs. So he picked up the hen and put her in a feed-bag. Both Natalie and Janet cried in fear lest she smother before they reached home.
“Nah, she’s ust to such ways. I’ll set her when we git over to Green Hill, and you gals kin pick out the eggs and slip ’em under her to-night when it is dark. Then she won’t bother you.”
All this was very interesting to the two girls who had never heard a word about raising chickens, or setting hens, before. So Mr. Ames drove them home in high spirits. The crate holding the pigs was left by the kitchen steps, and the hen placed in the coop on some china eggs, until Janet could select other eggs.
On his way past the house again, Mr. Ames called to Mrs. James: “Them churries oughter be picked soon. Ef you want me and my man to do it, we kin come this afternoon, likely.”
Rachel overheard and said: “Mis’ James, pickin’ ox-hearts is fun fer gals. Dem trees is jus’ bustin’ wid fruit a-waitin’ a lot of young gals’ hands to pick ’em. Ef I wuz you, Honey, I’d give Mr. Ames an answer in th’ mawnin’. One night moh won’t hurt the fruit, nohow.”
The farmer sent an angry glance at Rachel, but she met it with effrontery. When Mrs. James said, “I think I will wait until to-morrow before deciding,” Rachel grinned at the discomfited man.
He drove away without loss of time, and merely said: “I’ll bring them chickens over to-morrer.”
The moment he was out of hearing, Rachel said eagerly: “Why, Mis’ James, them Girl Scouts down at camp’ll give their haids to climb them trees and pick cherries on shares fer you. Charity begins to home, so let our gals get the benefit, says I!”
“Oh yes, Jimmy! Then Janet and I can help them, too. It will be heaps of fun, I think. We have a good ladder in the barn, and another shorter one in the cellar, so some of us can pick the outside boughs while the others climb up and do the inside branches,” planned Natalie.
Mrs. James studied the blue sky seriously. Then said: “I suppose we ought to pick them at once, then, while the weather is good. Once a rain sets in, cherries will rot. The birds, too, are ruining the ripe fruit with their pickings, so we ought to begin work immediately after luncheon.”