"Do you find time for reading here in the midst of your ploughing, Mr. Winthrop?"
"Not much — sometimes a little in the noon-spell," he answered, colouring slightly.
They left him and walked on to visit Rufus. Elizabeth led near enough to the tree to make sure, what her keen eye knew pretty well already, that one of the books was the very identical old brown-covered Greek and Latin dictionary that she had seen in the boat. She passed on and stood silent by Rufus's plough.
"Well, we've come to see you, Rufus," said Miss Cadwallader.
"I thought you had come to see my brother," said he.
"I didn't come to see either one or the other," said
Elizabeth. "I came to see what you are doing."
"I hope you are gratified," said the young man a little tartly.
"What's the use of taking so much trouble to break up the ground?" said Rose.
"Because, unfortunately, there is no way of doing it without trouble," said Rufus, looking unspoken bright things into the furrow at his feet.
"But why couldn't you just make holes in the ground and put the seed in?"