"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 like 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 of my fore-sightedness 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 ain't moon-shine--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."
"Well that is satisfactory, Mr. Douglass," said Fleda. "How is Mrs. Douglass? and Catherine?"
"I ha'n't heerd 'em sayin' nothin' about it," he said,--"and if there was anythin' the matter I suppose they'd let me know. There don't much go wrong in a man's house without his hearin' tell of it. So I think. Maybe 'tain't the same in other men's houses. That's the way it is in mine."
"Mrs. Douglass would not thank you," said Fleda, wholly unable to keep from laughing. Earl's mouth gave way a very little, and then he went on.
"How be you?" he said. "You ha'n't gained much, as I see. I don't see but you're as poor as when you went away."
"I am very well, Mr. Douglass."
"I guess New York ain't the place to grow fat. Well, Fleda, there ha'n't been seen in the whole country, or by any man in it, the like of the crop of corn we took off that 'ere twenty-acre lot--they're all beat to hear tell of it--they won't believe me--Seth Plumfield ha'n't shewed as much himself--he says you're the best farmer in the state."
"I hope he gives you part of the credit, Mr. Douglass;--how much was there?