The roads were grand after the rain, and the country was a dream, everything being washed and clean from the heavy rain.
Mistress took Carty to our house to lunch, and Gringo says when he went home late that afternoon, he walked up to the hen-houses and stared at the Wyandottes for a long time, with the most curious expression on his face.
Then, Gringo says, he muttered, “A companion to hens—by Jove! I must look higher.” He sauntered back to the house, mounted the staircase to his lovely room overlooking the beautiful, blue garden with its rocks and rills, and after enjoying the view from the window for a while, got out a little book from a locked drawer, and wrote something that Gringo heard him read aloud, “Sworn off again, and by the hens, I mean to keep my vow this time.”
He has kept it so far, though Gringo says Mrs. Bonstone often looks at him very anxiously. That’s the worst of tipplers. You never know when they’re going to break out again.
CHAPTER XXII
MRS. WAVERLEE’S SCHOOL
Old Czarina, who came from Russia, says the most wonderful thing to her in this Green Hill district, is the school for children in Neighbourhood Hall.
This is the building that master and Mr. Bonstone put up on the village square. It is a big white erection with colonial pillars and plenty of verandas, and it has a garden round it, and a playground for little children, and inside is a library, a restaurant, a swimming pool, a pretty parlour where young people can dance and play games, and a big hall where moving pictures are given.
The country people just pour into it in the evening. Every one pays five cents, and after a certain length of time, the village will own the whole place, for Mr. Bonstone and my master believe in public ownership of public amusements.