They did, too, a patch of them down at one end of the apple orchard, and Mr. Horton showed Sunny Boy how he used to string them on grass stems to take home to his mother when he was a little boy.
He certainly was a dear Daddy, and when he went back to the city Mother and Sunny had to be nicer to each other than ever because they missed him so very much.
“It’s raining!” Sunny Boy stood at the window after breakfast, the morning after Mr. Horton had gone back to the city. “Does it rain in the summer?”
Grandma laughed, and told him that indeed it did rain in the summer.
“We haven’t had a drop of rain since you’ve been here, and you must have brought fair weather with you,” she said. “Now that the hay is all in the barn, we’re glad to see it rain, for the garden needs it badly. Think how thirsty the flowers and vegetables must be.”
“Harriet said to play in the barn on rainy days,” said Sunny Boy sadly, “but I think I’m lonesome.”
“Well, you go out to the barn and you won’t be lonesome,” Araminta, who was clearing the breakfast table, laughed at his long face. “I’ll bet all the children are there, even the baby. He can go, can’t he, Mrs. Horton?”
Grandma said yes, of course he could, and Mother brought his rubbers and raincoat downstairs when she came, for he met her on the stairs and there she had them all ready.
“Run along and have a good time,” she told him, kissing him. “I was going to suggest that you play in the barn this morning. Help Jimmie if he’s working, won’t you, and don’t hinder him?”
Paddling out to the barn in the pouring rain was fun. But the barn was the most fun of all. Grandpa and Jimmie were on the first floor mending harness, and the doors were open so that they could see right out into the orchard and yet not get a bit wet. Just as Araminta had said, all the Hatch children were there, even the baby, who lay asleep on the hay in a nice, quiet corner.