Frank did not throw down his hoe, but fell to work harder than ever. In five minutes’ time the horn was sounded again, and on looking up, Frank beheld Kate standing on the veranda—she was waving her hat to attract his attention. He was inclined to make a martyr of himself just then, so he waved his straw hat in return, and immediately resolved to “hoe away like a major.”
In fifteen minutes more Kate was making her way for the second time that day through Frank’s cornfield. As she drew near, she called out, “Frank! Frank! why in the world don’t you come to dinner? There is a gentleman at table who came to see papa on business, and I ran away after the soup—I couldn’t eat my dinner one bit, without you.”
“You’ll have to, I reckon,” returned Frank; “a poor fellow, like me, who has to hoe corn all day, can’t stop to eat.”
“O, Frank Hallock! for shame!” cried Kate, putting down her indignant foot without being able to make noise enough about it to disturb an earthworm.
“It’s true,” responded Frank, pitching into the next hill with all his might.
“It is not true,” cried Kate; “and if just running off to look at the circus pass by makes you say such things, I am glad you can’t go to see it.”
“Of course you are. I knew you was, the whole time! It’s just like a girl. Girls always have the best times, and its pretty easy work for them. Nobody ever sends you off on errands in the sun and the cold and storms, and no one ever tells you not to sit on the nice chairs and things.”
“Now, Frank!” began Kate, who was not at all inclined to argue with him, “if you will not come in and get your dinner, you may go without it. I must go.”
Frank did not look up from his work, and Kate turned away and left him, feeling that he deserved to go without his dinner. Before she reached the house she began to feel very sorry for him, and by the time dinner was over she was ready to cry, with mingled pity and vexation.
“Poor fellow! he must be so hungry,” she thought, “and he has been hard at work in the hot sun so long. I’ll just go and carry him some dinner.”