The Gentleman from Indiana - Page 194/212

The unfolding aisles of corn swam pleasantly before John's eyes. The earth

hearkened to man's wants and answered; the clement sun and summer rains

hastened the fruition. Yonder stood the brown haystack, garnered to feed

the industrious horse who had earned his meed; there was the straw-

thatched shelter for the cattle. How the orchard boughs bent with their

burdens! The big red barns stood stored with the harvested wheat; and,

beyond the pasture-lands, tall trees rose against the benign sky to feed

the glance of a dreamer; the fertile soil lay lavender and glossy in the

furrow. The farmhouses were warmly built and hale and strong; no winter

blast should rage so bitterly as to shake them, or scatter the hospitable

embers on the hearth. For this was Carlow County, and he was coming home.

They crossed a by-road. An old man with a streaky gray chin-beard was

sitting on a sack of oats in a seatless wagon, waiting for the train to

pass. Harkless seized his companion excitedly by the elbow.

"Tommy!" he cried. "It's Kim Fentriss--look! Did you see that old fellow?"

"I saw a particularly uninterested and uninteresting gentleman sitting on

a bag," replied his friend.

"Why, that's old Kimball Fentriss. He's going to town; he lives on the

edge of the county."

"Can this be true?" said Meredith gravely.

"I wonder," said Harkless thoughtfully, a few moments later, "I wonder why

he had them changed around."

"Who changed around?"

"The team. He always used to drive the bay on the near side, and the

sorrel on the off."

"And at present," rejoined Meredith, "I am to understand that he is

driving the sorrel on the near side, and bay on the off?"

"That's it," returned the other. "He must have worked them like that for

some time, because they didn't look uneasy. They're all right about the

train, those two. I've seen them stand with their heads almost against a

fast freight. See there!" He pointed to a white frame farmhouse with green

blinds. "That's Win Hibbard's. We're just outside of Beaver."

"Beaver? Elucidate Beaver, boy!"

"Beaver? Meredith, your information ends at home. What do you know of your

own State if you are ignorant of Beaver. Beaver is that city of Carlow

County next in importance and population to Plattville."

Tom put his head out of the window. "I fancy you are right," he said. "I

already see five people there."