The envelope contained a painfully written letter from his wife’s sister, Sairy Ann, inviting Brooke to take the long-promised drive on the “Friday route,” and pass the night at her farm, “to see the early birds in the morning.” The sincerity of the invitation was so evident and the promised experience so tempting, that, after thinking it over a moment, Brooke went indoors to write an answer of acceptance, realizing that after the Sign of the Fox should be hung in its place there could be no holidays.
“Going, bean’t you?” smiled the pieman, when she returned.
“Yes,” she nodded gayly, “that is, if I can persuade Mrs. Peck to keep mother company. You see I have hunted far and wide for a young girl to help in our new venture,” of which, by the way, the pieman most heartily approved, and had been heralding it like the most persistent advance agent along the entire course of both his town and country routes.
“Never mind, suthin’ may turn up yet,” he advised soothingly; “you’ve got a week to spare and the Lord can raise up a heap o’ good as well as trouble in that time, and sometimes waitin’ fer Providence after you’ve done your best is advisable, and not to be jedged like settin’ and waitin’ before you’ve done aught, and leaning, which is not faith, but the devil’s yeast of laziness.”
In the early afternoon, after the pieman had gone on his way, Brooke wheeled her father into the garden, while she planted the seeds of mignonette, bluets, sweet-sultan, and China pinks, and the second planting of sweet peas of Miss Keith’s saving, in the long rows that she had advised, for now there would be a double reason for having jugs of fragrant flowers on the table of the honeysuckle-screened south porch, which Brooke had christened the Tea House.
Tatters was worried. Indoors he stayed by his master, outdoors he followed his mistress—under the present circumstances, what was his duty? First he licked Adam Lawton’s hand persistently, and then followed Brooke along the line she had carefully marked with stick and string, according to Stead’s gardening instructions, until he was made to understand that his footprints in the newly turned earth were not things to be desired; then he returned to the chair.