"Between ourselves, Mr. Waydean," I hastened to say, "I've seen so much of city people fooling away money in farming that I've made up my mind not to work any more land than I can attend to with a spade, a rake and a hoe."
He stared at us in turn, incredulity giving place to gloom as he realized that I was serious; then he turned to Marion in a burst of candor. "I tell you what, ma'am," he said, with warm approval, "I ain't met many men with so much downright common-sense as your husband. I'll own that I'm a bit sorry that he don't want to work the farm, for I'm getting old and I'd like a rest, but the truth is that running a farm costs a lot of money, and farmers come out at the wrong end of the horn most years. However, you've took a fancy to the place and I've took a shine to you, so I'll tell you what I'll do: I'll work the farming land myself, and you can take the house and grounds for four hundred a year."
Peter stood in the attitude of an auctioneer who is forced to throw away a desirable no-reserve lot on the first bid; surely,[Pg 40] then, my ears had deceived me into thinking that this was a larger sum than he had asked for the whole farm .
Marion was the first to speak. "I don't quite see," she began dubiously, "isn't that more?"
"Certainly, ma'am," he responded; "but how far'd a hundred dollars go in wages for hired help? If free I couldn't afford to take them fifty acres off your hands at that figure. Of course, I'd sooner you took the hull place at three hundred, then as much more would hire you a man, and if Mr. Carton looked after him pretty sharp there might be enough crop to feed your horses and cow, and he wouldn't have to spend more than a thousand dollars in stock and implements to start with."
I was slightly irritated that he addressed these remarks solely to Marion; one might have supposed that he thought she was the head of the family and that I was not even a party of the first part.
"I'll think the matter over," I began, with dignified hauteur, "and let you——"
Peter turned to me hastily. "That's as reasonable as I can do," he explained, with plaintive determination; "and I've got to know right away if you want the place."
"Well," I began, with an eager eye on Marion for the cue, "I—I——"
"There's another man after it," urged Peter, "and he's coming to-morrow for my answer."
Marion gasped. "We'd better pay the—the four"——
"The four hundred," I decided, for her, "and let you run the farm."
