186 THE END OF THE DROUGHT 
since there it was still extremely wet, but I returned 
to the house to cheer Little Joseph. 
He was not reading ‘‘An Ambitious Boy’s Gar- 
den,” as when I went out; but entertaining Mr. 
Hayden, who had returned early in the morning 
from the mountains, and who' then had hastened 
to the Six Spruces, he said, to hear how we had 
stood the gale. It did seem remarkable that he 
should have come back with such rain and wind. 
All the time he had been away there had scarcely 
been breeze enough in the garden tO' toss a dead 
leaf, while with his return there had come a hurri- 
cane. Joseph and I began to think there was some 
reason outside of our joke in having thought Mr. 
Hayden so like the wind. 
He and his boys had enjoyed themselves in the 
mountains, he said, but he was glad to be home 
again. Joseph had told him about the spruce tree 
before I came in from the garden. 
“The whole character of Nestly will change,” 
he said, “if one of those spruces falls. You had 
better let me talk with your man Timothy about 
what can be done.” 
Just why Mr. Hayden had wished to do so, 
neither Joseph nor I understood. He is, however, 
a man whom it would be impossible to refuse any- 
thing. 
