Therefore were Lyddy and 'Phemie more than ever anxious to make the boarders' project pay. And with the Colesworths' fifteen dollars a week it seemed as though a famous start had been made in that direction.
By serving simple food, plainly cooked, Lyddy was confident that she could keep the table for all five from the board paid by Mr. Colesworth and his son. If they got other boarders, a goodly share of _their_ weekly stipends could be added on the profit side of the ledger.
Lucas helped them for a couple of hours Monday morning, and the girls managed to put the room the newcomers had chosen into readiness for the old gentleman. Lucas drove to town to meet Mr. Colesworth. Lucas was beginning to make something out of the Bray girls' project, too, and he grinned broadly as he said to 'Phemie:
"I'm goin' to be able to put up for a brand new buggy nex' fall, Miss 'Phemie--a better one than Joe Badger's got. What 'twixt this cartin' boarders over the roads, and makin' Miss Lyddy's garden, I'm going to be well fixed."
"On the road to be a millionaire; are you, Lucas?" suggested 'Phemie, laughing.
"Nope. Jest got one object in view," grinned Lucas.
"I wanter drive you to church in my new buggy, and make Joe Badger an' that Nettie Meyers look like thirty cents. That's what _I_ want."
"Oh, Lucas! _That_ isn't a very high ambition," she cried.
"But it's goin' to give me an almighty lot of satisfaction," declared the young farmer. "You won't go back on me; will yer, Miss 'Phemie?"
"I'll ride with you--of course," replied 'Phemie. "But I'd just as lief go in the buckboard."
"Now _that_," said the somewhat puzzled Lucas, "is another thing that makes you gals diff'rent from the gals around here."
Old Mr. Colesworth came and made himself at home very quickly. He played cribbage with Mr. Bray in the evening while the girls did up the work and sewed; and during the early days of his stay with them he proved to be a very pleasant old gentleman, with few crotchets, and no special demands upon the girls for attention.
He walked a good deal, proved to be something of a geologist, and pottered about the rocky section of the farm with a little hammer and bag for hours together.
As Mr. Bray could walk only a little way, Mr. Colesworth did most of his rambling about Hillcrest alone. And he grew fonder and fonder of the place as the first week advanced.