“Lizzie was a handsome girl, an’ had more sense than any o’ the others that tried to keep up with her. After all, she was Sam’s fault, an’ Sam was a sin conceived an’ committed by his wife, as ye might say. She had made him what he was.
“‘Have you seen Dan Pettigrew lately?’ Lizzie asked.
“‘Yes,’ I says. ‘Dan is goin’ to be a farmer.’
“‘A farmer!’ says she, an’ covered her face with her handkerchief an’ shook with merriment.
“‘Yes,’ I says. ‘Dan has come down out o’ the air. He’s abandoned folly. He wants to do something to help along.’
“‘Yes, of course,’ says Lizzie, in a lofty manner. ‘Dan is really an excellent boy—isn’t he?’
“‘Yes, an’ he’s livin’ within his means—that’s the first mile-stone in the road to success,’ I says. ‘I’m goin’ buy him a thousand acres o’ land, an’ one o’ these days he’ll own it an’ as much more. You wait. He’ll have a hundred men in his employ an’ flocks an’ herds an’ a market of his own in New York. He’ll control prices in this county, an’ they’re goin’ down. He’ll be a force in the State.’
“They were all sitting up. The faces o’ the Lady Henshaw an’ her daughter turned red.
“‘I’m very glad to hear it, I’m sure,’ said her Ladyship.
“I wasn’t so sure o’ that as she was, an’ there, for me, was the milk in the cocoanut. I was joyful.