"Half—my—crop," I solemnly asserted; "if you care to send for it. Perhaps you could get Bunce and Lemon to team the produce to market?"
"I'll attend to that," he responded cheerfully. "I'll get up a bee, and lend a hand myself. I hope,—ho, ho, ho!—that you will have a large crop. What do you propose to grow next year?"
"Well, I—I haven't quite decided."
"Considering that I have a half-interest, let me suggest potatoes."
"Potatoes!" I exclaimed. "Why, they're not worth digging this year—fifteen cents a bag!"
The minister laughed. "Ninety-nine farmers out of a hundred will reason in the same way," he said; "then the crop will be short and the prices high. Be the hundredth man, and plant potatoes."
I thanked him for the advice, which seemed to me to be excellent. He rose to go, then placed his hand affectionately on my shoulder. "Keep your pew," he said, "and leave me to settle with Brothers Bunce and Lemon; but if, as a favor to me, you could keep from—going to sleep?——"
I could not resist the urgent friendliness of his appeal. "Mr. Hughes," I responded, "I can promise never to close my eyes while listening to your sermons; more than that, I'll see that Bunce and Lemon keep awake also."
His eyes twinkled with appreciative humor as he thanked me, and a sudden remorse seized me for taking advantage of his insistent belief that I was Peter Waydean. I might have yielded to my inclination to confess, had not Marion's cough given place to a series of energetic movements which I interpreted as a threat that she was preparing to enter the room to expose my duplicity. As a usual thing I am easily intimidated, but sometimes when I get beyond my depth I become bold, defiant, reckless. I had, after all, done no wrong; I had merely accepted a situation that had been forced upon me. My wife, on the contrary, had behaved with heartless indifference. After training me to depend upon her judgment, after teaching me to obey the dictates of her conscience, she had, without a word of warning, sympathy or apology, left me to wrestle alone with a momentous question; left me to be tossed about like a tailless kite or a rudderless boat. Well, it was my plain duty to teach her a lesson, and I saw the way to point a pretty moral and at the same time settle my doubts as to the wisdom of allowing Peter to work my land on shares. Marion had refused her opinion on this matter; she might now listen while I appealed to a stranger.
"Mr. Hughes," I said hurriedly, as he picked up his hat, "sit down for five minutes more—I want to ask your advice."