204 THE FAT OF THE LAND 



cements friendship in the home as well as in the 

 world. 



There were no serious cares nowadays, and 

 time passed so smoothly at Four Oaks that we 

 wondered at the picnic life that had fallen to us. 

 The village of Exeter was alive in all things 

 social. The city families who had farms or 

 country places near the village were so fond of 

 them that they rarely closed them for more than 

 two or three months, and these months were as 

 likely to come in summer as in winter. 



Our friends the Gordons made Homestead Farm 

 their permanent residence, though they kept open 

 house in town. Beyond the Gordons' was the 

 modest home of an Irish baronet, Sir Thomas 

 O'Hara. Sir Tom was a bachelor of sixty. He 

 had run through two fortunes (as became an Irish 

 baronet) in the racing field and at Homburg, and as 

 a young man he had lived ten years at Limmer's 

 tavern in London. When not in training to ride 

 his own steeple-chasers, he was putting up his 

 hands against any man in England who would 

 face him for a few friendly rounds. He was not 

 always victorious, either in the field, before the 

 green cloth, or in the ring ; but he was always a 

 kind-hearted gentleman who would divide his 

 last crown with friend or foe, and who could 

 accept a beating with grace and unruffled spirit. 



He could never ride below the welter weight, 

 and after a few years he outgrew this weight 

 and was forced to give up the least expensive of 



