“Then we’ll do it,” declared his brother. “I’ve heard a lot of people say we wouldn’t have any crops to harvest, and I’ll work twenty-four hours a day to show them we can do more by scientific methods, as Mr. Hopkins said, than they can in their way.”
CHAPTER XXXIX
A FORTUNATE DISCOVERY
The ease with which Margie and Sallie adapted themselves to the hard and often rough tasks of homestead life surprised their neighbours who had beheld their stylish clothes and hands that very evidently were unaccustomed to labour, with many a shaking of the head. And when they found that the girls were really natural and unaffected, the sturdy settlers took them to their hearts.
Rare was the day that some of the neighbours were not calling upon or receiving visits from Mrs. Porter and her daughters, for the boys had insisted upon their learning to ride the ponies that Mr. Hopkins had loaned.
In spare moments the young people practised with their firearms until they all became good shots, even the little mother overcoming her aversion enough to learn to fire both a rifle and a revolver with fair marksmanship.
As the season advanced, the young homesteaders irrigated their fields every week, with the result that their crops grew splendidly. But as Phil and Ted watched them mature with pride, their neighbours watched them with jealousy.
Of this feeling, Chester was the first to learn, and when he did, he lost no time in seeking out Andy.
“Simmons is at the bottom of this,” declared the new land agent, when the fire lookout had imparted the unpleasant information.
“It certainly sounds like his work, but he has appealed to the settlers’ pockets, and that means trouble,” returned Chester. “Aren’t the boys’ crops far enough along so that they can give up irrigating them without injury?”