1909. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
119 
A Suburban Diplomatist. 
Nobody could have looked at Cyrus 
Toppan on the evening of his return 
from a visit to his nephew without 
knowing that he had enjoyed the 
week. “I’ve got a little something to 
tell you about my new niece,” he said to 
Captain Saunders and Captain Bolles, 
when his wife had thoughtfully de¬ 
parted to a neighbor’s house, and left 
him with his two friends. 
‘Tell on,” said the two captains 
promptly. “You let us light up, and 
then you needn’t look for anything in 
the line of interruptions,” added Cap¬ 
tain Bolles. “We’ll nod if we see occa¬ 
sion.” 
“Tou know I’ve always had some 
doubts what kind of a wife a feller like 
Henry, with his head way up in the 
clouds, would pick him .out,” said Mr. 
Toppin, and the captains nodded. 
“Well, I guess Providence had a 
hand in the choosing of Emily,” con¬ 
tinued the host. “She’s as neat a little 
craft as ever I set eyes on, and’s got a 
first-class head-piece, what’s more 
They’re living about ten miles out of 
the city, in a mighty pretty little sub¬ 
urb, and they’ve got the corner lot in 
a good neighborhood—nice houses on 
both streets. 
“I said to Henry, ‘Doesn’t it cost ye 
pretty steep?’ For I knew his writing 
didn’t bring him in any great of an in¬ 
come yet, though he’s coming on. And 
he said, ‘It don’t cost what you’d think 
'twould. In fact, this wasn’t consid¬ 
ered a very desirable lot till Emily got 
to work on it.’ 
“Well, of course I wanted to know 
the meaning of tht. So he told me just 
what happened. Seems they wanted to 
be about that far from town, and they 
met the agent for a lot of new houses 
somewhere, and he told ’em of this 
place. Said he and his wife had lived 
there for a few months and then moved 
in town, and ’twas a pretty place. So 
they went right along out to see it. 
The rent was reasonable, so reasonable 
that Emily got kind of thoughtful. 
Henry was for taking it, same as he 
always does good things, as if the 
ravens had fetched it to him. But 
Emily’s built different. 
She looked the agent right in the eye. 
and said she, ‘What’s the out about it?’ 
And he saw ’twasn’t any use to make 
up any pretty stories or beat round the 
bush, so he told the truth. 
“ ‘You see that big house down 
there?’ said. ‘Well, that man pays rent 
for three of these houses, his own and 
two married sons’, and he keeps hens.’ 
“Henry said Emily began to smile 
and nod. 
“And every afternoon when they’re 
let out they make right for this corner 
lot,” savs the a^ent. “I don’t know 
what ’tis attracts ’em so, whether it’s 
the slope, or the grass is greener, or 
what, but here’s where they land, and 
scratch and dig till they’re called home 
for supper. And he says he can’t help 
it—small fowl have got to have their 
liberty. And my wife likes a flower- 
garden and smooth grass.” 
“ ‘I see,’ Emily said, when he stopped. 
‘So do I like a garden, and I shall have 
a pretty one here.’ And that very day 
Henry signed a five years’ lease, with a 
couple of portable henhouses thrown in. 
“‘Going to keep hens?’ the agent 
asked her, when she bartered for the 
henhouses, and Emily smiled and said, 
‘For a while, maybe.’ 
“Henry was kind of uneasy till she 
explained her plans to him, for he’s no 
farmer, nor he never took to hens. But 
lie saw the light after she’d talked to 
him a while. They did their work and 
moving mornings till the day they 
moved in—that was their first afternoon. 
Emily took a rest after dinner, and 
when she got up and looked out on the 
lawn, there, sure enough, ws a whole 
posse o’ hens and some chickens! 
Henry set their portable henhouses up 
that night, and next morning a farmer 
brought them some hens and put 'em in 
the houses, likewise rhickens. Henry 
superintended the job. Emily never 
went near ’em, nor asked a question. 
“That afternoon Henry let out their 
live stock while Emily was taking her 
rest. Then he sat down and wrote for 
an hour or so in a complete little place 
they call his ‘study,’ at the back o’ the 
house. When Emily waked up she went 
in there and rumpled up his hair and 
told him he’d written long enough, and 
to lay off and take a snooze afore tea- 
time, same as was their usual arrange¬ 
ment. 
“ ‘I’ll call the hens and feed ’em, and 
get ’em under cover,’ says Emily. 
“That’ll be my part of the work.” 
“Well, Henry said he stretched out 
on the lounge she has all fixed up cozy 
for him, and fell off into a doze. 
When he waked up ’twas most dark, 
and he lay there listening to voices, 
Emily’s and a man’s. Emily’s was cool 
and pleasant, but the man’s had a pretty 
mad sound. 
“ ‘I should like to know what you’ve 
done with my liens?’ he was saying. 
“You liens!’ Emil repeats after him, 
in a real surprised tone. ‘Why, where 
zccrc they?’ 
“ ‘Well—’hem’—says the man, ‘they— 
why, I suppose they were on your 
lawn.’ 
“‘Oh,’ says Emily, ‘how unfortunate! 
You see, we’ve just moved, and our 
hens only came this morning. I haven’t 
even asked my husband how many he 
bought. I’ve been busy getting settled, 
you know. He let them out while I 
was taking my nap, and now he’s get¬ 
ting a little rest, after his writing. I 
told him I’d call the hens in, feed 
them, and get them under cover every 
afternoon. I had some meal for them, 
and they came running to me just as 
fast. And you think your hens were 
all here, too? Now we’ll take my little 
electric lantern and go right out to 
the henhouses, and you’ve only to pick 
yours out and take them right away. 
Of course I wouldn’t keep them. I 
don’t know much about hens, but they 
will follow you, won't they? Won’t 
they know your voice?’ 
“Henry said he held his breath, ex¬ 
pecting maybe the man would say 
something that would oblige him to 
get right of’n the lounge and go in and 
deal with him; but instead of that, he 
said the man bust right out into a roar. 
“ See here,’ he said, ‘you’ve got the 
best of me, and I’ll wager you know it, 
whether you know much about hens or 
not. You keep ’em overnight and let 
’em out to-morrow at the usual time, 
and I’ll see that they’re sorted out by 
my man and taken home, and kept 
home. I’ll have a little place made 
back of the house, where they’ll get 
room enough. And any eggs you get 
from their visit, says lie ‘you’re wel¬ 
come to. And look here, when you get 
settled I’ll have my folks call on you,’ 
he said. ‘And now I’ll bid you good 
night.’ 
“‘Good night!’ says Emily, sweet as 
ever. ‘We’d love to have them come. 
And, oh, Mr. Brown, when it’s later in 
the season, I hope you’ll accept a cou¬ 
ple of broilers for this trouble I’ve put 
you to. I think perhaps we sha’n’t keep 
hens so very long.’ 
“ ‘I knew that before you told me,’ 
says the man. And Henry said that as 
he passed by the side window on his 
way home the window was open, and 
Henry could hear him chuckling good 
and hearty.”—Elizabeth Lincoln Gould 
in the Youth’s Companion. , 
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