It was all so remarkable to them that they did not know what to say or think. Here was intelligence directed from the first. How different had they utilized the intervening time. It was a momentous lesson, they were smart enough to appreciate what they saw and learned.
"I am so happy to know that we have been permitted to become a member of your family," said Ralph, as he grasped the Professor's hand. "All this around here is certainly worth seeing, and it makes me long to take a hand and help, and I know that Tom feels that way, too."
Before the Professor could reply George stepped up and put his arm around the Professor. "If you boys only knew how beautiful he has been, and how patiently he has urged us to carry out this work, you would almost wish, as has been our desire many times, never to leave this place; but—of course, we—we want to see home—and," and the tears came, and Ralph and Harry and Tom broke down and wept, and they turned away from each other to hide their emotions.
When they turned and tried to be very brave again, the Professor, who was not ashamed of the tears which fell, smiled through them, and his voice rang out with a cheer that made every face bright, as he said: "The most satisfying thing in life is appreciation. My boys have been heroes. I have done nothing; it is their work. I have felt ashamed, sometimes, to know how little has been the work of my hands. Occasionally they have been directed, but it is because they wanted to know so many things and the reasons for everything they started out to do. You can see, therefore, that if they had not possessed the spirit to accomplish these things, the little that I have tried to impart to them would have been of no use. I merely allude to this to show you that it is not knowledge or information that makes the world move or induces men to progress, but it is the spirit which takes hold of and utilizes the intelligence."
The new additions to the family now necessitated an entire rearrangement of their quarters. The house, which had been built up in sections, so to speak, contained three rooms, one, the original portion, being now the store room, to which was added a living room and a kitchen.
Commenting on this, and with all together, to get some understanding of the plans, the Professor outlined his views: "We have been putting up our structures here in the way usually followed in all rural communities, where there is plenty of room, by first erecting a little shanty, and then adding another room to that, and a little lean-to on the other side, and as the family grows, enclosing the lean-to to make another room, and then adding to that, and so on, until the whole mass makes a more or less picturesque structure, and a fine thing for artists to rave over. But the interior comfort is quite another thing. We should change that in this civilized community, and put up a building that will be not only comfortable and adapted for our necessities, but also artistic, and it will cost us no more than to do it in a slovenly, inartistic way. I imagine we can make good terms with the carpenter and the bricklayer and the decorator so as to reduce the cost as much as possible;" and all enjoyed the Professor's little joke.
It was Harry's turn to offer a few suggestions: "We have about everything we need now, except food. The barley is all gone—"
"What, all that we left in the bin?" asked George.
"Something has gotten into it and carried it all away."
"We shall have to investigate that the first thing," suggested the Professor. "Fortunately we haven't threshed out one of the stacks, and that will give us plenty of exercise for a day."