The three young people, escorted by the collie, left the house, and turning away from the road, proceeded along a lane which was really a continuation of the avenue without the grateful shade of the trees. The dusty way was strewn with fragrant hay which had fallen from the waggons on their way to the barns. They passed the two broad, shallow ponds, overgrown, as Miss Tribbey had said, with water-weeds and bulrushes. Only a shallow, unwholesome little pool of water remained in each; thirsty birds fluttered about the margin, and, as the three passed, the frogs plunged into the water from every side. The collie walked sedately into the middle of one of the pools, then came and shook himself beside Mabella, spattering her skirts.
The heat was breathless; the earth, beneath the inquisition of the sun, suffered but was mute. And presently they saw the hay-makers, the two sweating horses in the mower, the man tossing the windrows into coils. A great oak tree stood solitary in one corner, and thither the girls directed their steps; a brown earthen jug of water, covered by the men’s coats, stood in its shadow. Mabella took off her sunbonnet and waved it wildly by one string. One of the men sent back an answering shout, and tossed a forkful of hay into the air. The sun glinted from the burnished steel of the fork to the yellow hair of its wielder.
“That’s Lanty,” said Mabella to Sidney, with a certain shy personal pride in her accent.
“Our cousin, Lansing Lansing,” amended Vashti.
“No! Oh, no! He has a farm of his own, but his haying is all done, and he has come over to help Dad.”
“The farmers help each other here, when they can,” said Mabella.
Sidney felt enthusiasm surge within his breast; was not this practical communism?
The men had left their work and were coming towards them.
“That’s Nathan Peck,” said Mabella, “on the left.”
Sidney saw him; a serious, sunburnt man, with mild, light-coloured eyes and straight, straggly hair. He was very thin, and wore a woollen muffler around his neck.
“Do you see that scarf? Temperance gave him that three years ago; he’s never been seen without it since.” Mabella whispered this hastily to Sidney.
“Warm devotion, isn’t it?” inquired Sidney as he rose to go and meet his host.