"Bravely, Barby and it is very sweet."
"You ha'n't left nothing behind you in New York, have you?" said Barby, when they returned to the kitchen.
"Left anything! no what do you think I have left?"
"I didn't know but you might have forgotten to pack up your memory," said Barby, drily.
Fleda laughed, and then in walked Mr. Douglass.
"How d'ye do?" said he. "Got back again. I heerd you was hum, and so I thought I'd just step up and see. Been getting along pretty well?"
Fleda answered, smiling internally at the wide distance between her "getting along," and his idea of it.
"Well, the hay's first rate!" said Earl, taking off his hat, and sitting down in the nearest chair "I've been feedin' it out now for a good spell, and I know what to think about it. We've been feedin' it out ever since some time this side o' the middle o' November I never see nothin' sweeter, and I don't want to see nothin' sweeter than it is! and the cattle eats it liked May roses they don't know how to thank you enough for it."
"To thank you, Mr. Douglass," said Fleda, smiling.
"No," said he, in a decided manner "I don't want no thanks for it, and I don't deserve none! 'Twa'n't thanks to none or my foresightedness that the clover wa'n't served the old way. I didn't like new notions, and I never did like new notions, and I never see much good of 'em; but I suppose there's some on 'em that aint moonshine my woman says there is, and I suppose there is, and after this clover hay I'm willin' to allow that there is. It's as sweet as a posie if you smell to it and all of it's cured alike; and I think, Fleda, there's a quarter more weight of it. I ha'n't proved it nor weighed it, but I've an eye and a hand as good as most folks, and I'll qualify to there being a fourth part more weight of it and it's a beautiful colour. The critters is as fond of it as you and I be of strawberries."