358 THE FAT OF THE LAND 
is all right, but your terminal facilities are bad. 
Jack is to be educated, travelled, employed, en- 
gaged, married, endowed with Homestead Farm, 
and all that; but you mustn’t kill off the Gordons. 
I swing the red lantern in front of that train of 
thought. Let Jack and Jessie wait till we are 
through with Four Oaks and the Gordons have 
no further use for Homestead Farm, before think- 
ing of coupling that property on to this.” 
«Don’t be a greater goose than you can help,” 
said Polly. “You know what Imean. Men are 
so short-sighted! Laura says, ‘the Headman 
ought to have a small dog and a long stick’; but 
no matter, I’ll keep an eye on the children, and 
you needn’t worry about country life for them. 
They'll take to it kindly.” 
« Well, they ought to, if they have any appre- 
ciation of the fitness of things. Did you ever 
see weather made to order before? I feel as if 
I had been measured for it.” 
«Tt suits my garden down to the ground,” said © 
Polly, who hates slang. 
«It was planned for the farmer, madam. If 
it happens to fit the rose-garden mistress, it is _ 
a detail for you to note and be thankful for, but © 
the great things are outside the rose gardens. — 
Look at that corn-field! A crow could hide in © 
it anywhere.” i 
« What have crows hiding got to do with corn, | 
I’d like to know ?” q 
« When I was a boy the farmers used to say, | 
