A HUNTING PARTY
The day following the arrival of the guests was spent in resting and seeing the ranch. Katy and Gertie had never been on a large farm before, and the thousand acres of field and prairie and woodland, seemed as marvellous as the tales they had read of the big English estates. Alice and Dick were also fascinated by all this space and freedom, but they saw deeper than the little girls.
“It’s a wonderful place,” said Dick, “and I don’t wonder the Doctor is proud of it. But he is too well along in years to handle such a big undertaking. I doubt if the ranch pays for ten years to come, and it means hard work and a lonely life for all of them. It’s all right for Frank and Marian, but I’m sorry for the rest of the family.”
“Mrs. Morton is growing old fast with all this 101unaccustomed drudgery, and she is worried about the children’s education, I can see,” replied Alice.
“Yes, there are two sides to it. I guess we’ll stick to the law and little old Centerville; we may not die rich, but we’ll be a lot more comfortable as we go along.”
Sherm took to the farm like the proverbial duck to the pond. He donned overalls that first morning and was off with Frank and Ernest to the fields before the little girls were out of bed. After breakfast Jane took Katie and Gertie to see the sights of the ranch. First to the spring under the old oak where the cold, clear water gushed from the rocks into a little basin, and then tumbled down a rocky channel under the springhouse and on for some hundred of yards farther before it widened out into the pond.
“We can go swimming in the pond but there is a nicer place in the creek above the ford.”
“Oh, I’d love to learn to swim but we haven’t any bathing suits.”