“Eat,” decided his brother, “though you can be taking out some of the lighter things while I am frying the bacon and eggs, if you want to.”
“Which I don’t. I’ll boil the coffee.” And laughing over the stories the loungers at the store had told them, the boys cooked their meal and ate it ravenously.
Refreshed by the food, they made but short work of the unloading, and when everything was safely stowed away, they started out to plan their next day’s work, having agreed that first they should clear and plant some land for their vegetable garden and then build their irrigation system.
After examining several locations, they finally selected one on the east side of the section, where the ground held sufficient natural moisture to insure good crops.
On the spot, however, there was a fairly heavy growth of underbrush.
“Let’s get our axes and begin cutting today,” suggested the elder boy. “We can’t afford to waste any time. By the looks of this brush, it will take us two or three days to chop it out, at the least.”
“Wish we had a piece of iron rail, then we could hitch the blacks, one at each end, and drag it, like Mr. Hopkins told us. That would save a lot of work,” returned Ted.
“But we haven’t, so we must do it the best way we can. Come on, let’s see how much we can clear before dark.”
Eager to begin work on the homestead which was to mean so much to them and the little mother back in Weston, the boys set out for their axes. But when they came in sight of their camp, they forgot about them.
“One of the blacks is gone!” cried Ted, stopping short and staring in amazement at the sapling to which the horse had been tied.