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 alwaysa 
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 
