“We’re going to look over the section with Andy,” finally announced Phil. “When we get back, we’ll help fix up the camp.” But when they returned from their inspection, they found that the girls had anticipated them and that the bough house was surprisingly homelike.
“My, but it does seem good to come back and find you here, Momsy,” said Ted, putting his arm about her affectionately.
“Tell us how you happened to come out so soon,” demanded the elder boy. “Honestly, when I found Ted’s note saying he had gone to meet you, I thought he was playing a trick on me.”
Before Mrs. Porter could answer, however, Margie exclaimed:
“We made Momsy come. There was no living with her. Your train wasn’t out of sight from the station before she began to worry about you, and when she got so she couldn’t say ten words without wondering how you were getting along, Sallie and I just put our feet down and said we would come out here, so we could have a few minutes’ peace.”
“Well, we’re sure glad to see you, even if we couldn’t give you the reception we hoped,” said Phil. “Still, I think it would be best for you to board at Peleg’s for awhile.”
“Pay board when we can live on our own homestead and in our own house? Do you think we are millionaires?” demanded Sallie.
“You’ve made a nice mess of things,” snorted Ted, looking at his brother angrily. “Why couldn’t you keep quiet for awhile? Don’t you know Momsy’s had enough with this fire?”
At the words, so evidently full of meaning, the little woman and the girls looked at one another and then at the boys, in wonder.
“Seems to me it’s you, not I, who has made the mess,” retorted Phil.
“Stop talking in riddles and tell us why you want us to board,” exclaimed Margie, impatiently.
As the boys had taunted one another, Joy and her father had listened in amazement, and they were as keen to hear the explanation as the others. When Phil had finished the story of the warning and of the trip to the Land Office at Waterville, Jasper exclaimed:
“Don’t you worry one mite, Mis’ Porter. First thing tomorrow, I’ll drop round to see some of the neighbours. There won’t be any more warnings! As for Bill Simmons, the land agent, when I tell him a thing or two I know, I ’low he won’t be so high and mighty.”
But it was Andy who did the most toward reassuring Mrs. Porter.
“I am going to tell you all a secret,” he said. “Simmons is going to be removed as land agent. Several complaints have been filed against him in Washington, and they are so serious that the Secretary of the Interior has decided to appoint another agent. From this man you may be certain you will receive justice. In the meantime, my advice is to go ahead, just as though your entry had been accepted.”
“I hope you are right, I am sure, Mr. Howe.”
“Andy, please, Mrs. Porter.”
“Well, Andy, then. But you know we haven’t much money, and if we should spend what I have and what the boys have and then lose the homestead, we should—be ruined.”
“I should not advise you to go ahead if I thought there was any doubt, Mrs. Porter.” Then, seeing that the little woman was not yet entirely reassured, he added: “I will tell you, and this is even more of a secret than the other, that I expect to be appointed land agent in Simmons’ place.”
“Good! Fine! Now we’ll be all right!” exclaimed the boys, while Jasper and his daughter also expressed their delight at the prospect.
“I suppose Si Hopkins is back of you?” said the aged farmer.
“He is,” Andy replied.
“Speaking of money,” said Joy, after they had discussed the reasons for the land agent’s removal, “did you think to dig up the tin can when you cleared out the camp, Phil?”
“Nobody was talking of money,” returned the boy, frowning. But his attempt to put off the question was futile, for Margie and Sallie badgered him about burying his money, and then, as he showed no signs of going to dig up the can, his younger sister declared she would.
“It’s no use,” he growled. “The men who wrote the warning dug it up.”
“You mean you’ve been robbed?” gasped Sallie.
“Yes.”
“Of how much?”
“A hundred dollars.”
“How much have you left?”
“About a dollar, isn’t it, Ted?”
“Eighty-five cents, to be exact.”
“What on earth were you going to do?” demanded Margie.
“Oh, we had food enough and all our seed and tools, so, after planting, we were going to hire out to our neighbours, if we could,” returned Phil.
“Steve offered us each a job at fifty dollars a month, when we first came,” said Ted. “We figured we could work a month while our stuff was growing. That would give us back the hundred we lost.”
“The idee, and me with the two hundred Winthrop Porter loaned me in my pocket,” exclaimed Jasper. “Here, take it.” And drawing out his well-worn wallet, Mr. Jay again took out the two bills.
“We settled that once, Mr. Jay,” said Phil. And he explained his decision to his mother.
“My boy decided rightly, Mr. Jay,” declared Mrs. Porter. “Besides, I have about three hundred dollars, so that we shall do very well.”
And though both Joy and her father urged them to take the money, the Porters refused.
“Why, you’ve lost everything except what you brought in your schooner,” exclaimed Phil. “You need it even more than we do.”
“That’s true, Jasper,” declared Andy. “Furthermore, Si won’t let these boys fail for lack of a little money, to say nothing of myself.”
“Why not let Andy keep our money for us, Momsy?” suggested Sallie. “Those horrid men might take it from us. But it would be safe with him.”
“You seem to have a mighty fine opinion of Andy,” chuckled Ted, in a tone that sent flushes to his sister’s cheeks. But they all recognized the wisdom of the suggestion, and Mrs. Porter handed over the money, for which the station agent insisted upon giving a receipt.
“I hated to tell you about it, Momsy, but I’m glad it’s settled,” declared Phil. “It didn’t seem right to have any secret from you, yet Ted and I did not wish to cause you any worry.”
“Now suppose we all turn in,” said Andy. “We’ve had a hard day and there’s a lot of work to be done tomorrow.”
This suggestion was readily accepted, and while the womenfolk made themselves comfortable in the bough house, the men, after making certain the horses and cows were securely tied, rolled up in their blankets about the campfire.
Up bright and early the next day, it was decided that Jasper and Joy should stay and help the homesteaders do their planting, after which Ted and Phil would assist them.
Going down to the lowland, they discovered the ground had cooled to such an extent that Andy and Jasper decided it would do no harm to plow, and accordingly they went at it, while the agent returned to Chikau.
On the aged farmer’s advice, they worked the land into fields thirteen hundred feet long and about seventy wide, for in that size they would be easier to irrigate.
“This soil, being virgin, will be productive, but the ashes will prove a mighty good fertilizer,” said Jasper, as they worked. “Course, this side of the section doesn’t need irrigating now, probably won’t for several years. So we’ll just work up enough fields for you to plant some alfalfa, some wheat, and some corn, and then we’ll fix the land on the other side. It will be interesting to see which side grows faster—this one with natural moisture and fertilized by the ashes, or the other irrigated but without fertilizer.”
Toward the middle of the forenoon the boys were surprised to see Joy and their sisters, bags hanging from their shoulders, appear on the field.
“What have you brought, something to eat?” called Phil.
“No. Seed,” answered Margie.
“But we are not going to plant until we have all the fields ready,” declared Ted.
“We are, though. Joy said it would help, and we want to do it,” returned Margie.
“You’ll be like Phil, sow enough for an acre in less than a quarter.”
“You just wait and see, Mr. Smarty. Joy is going to show us, and she knows more about planting than you do, I guess.”
Amused and pleased to think their sisters were really willing and eager to help, the young homesteaders watched them scatter the seed and then returned to their own task.
So well did the girls work that when night came four fields were planted and the seeds harrowed in.