"We are!"
"Well, you know that everything is going up?"
"Everything but prayer!" from the discontented one.
"Even that may be going up, too," he answered solemnly. "Now listen: Perhaps you know that I am rich,--not so rich as some, but richer than I have any right to be or any reason for being----"
Here Mary Culbertson tossed her proud little head as much as to let him know that charity was not what she wanted. Major Fern saw her and smiled his approval.
"I have no idea of offering any of my ill-gotten gold to you.--I know how you would hate that. In fact, I haven"t any gold to offer. I am rich only in land and about as poor as they make "em in other things. I am really land poor, having much more land than I have any use for or can till. I can"t get labor to keep up my farms. I have been thinking of selling an especially fertile farm about four miles from Wellington, but I don"t want to lose money on it, and if I sell at this time I am sure to. This farm comprises about two hundred acres of as good land as one can find in these parts, and that is saying a great deal. And now I am coming to my scheme----"
The old gentleman paused while the girls waited in breathless eagerness.
"I will let you have this farm if you will work it for me,--have it for as long as you need it. You don"t know what can be done in the way of intensive farming if one can get the labor. You could raise enough potatoes to run your mess for the winter; enough tomatoes and beans to can, and what"s more you can can them right on the spot."
"Hurrah! Hurrah!" shouted Billie McKym. "The problem is solved or I"m a Boche."
"Are you willing to undertake it?" asked the Major.
"Of course we are willing!" cried Lilian.
"The ones who live far can take the first part of the summer, and the last, just before college opens, and the ones who are close can fill in during the midsummer," said Molly, immediately grasping the possibility of the plan.
"Well, I"ll leave it to you young ladies to work up, and when you care to, I"ll take you over the place. There is a good house and well and plenty of fruit,--apples to feed to the hogs----"
"That suits me!" declared Edwin, who had been quiet while his cousin was unfolding the plan. "I see no reason, seriously, why this idea should not be wonderfully successful,--not only should it bring you back to college and keep you for the same, or even less, money than you have hitherto had to pay, but it will at the same time help materially in the food situation that the country is going to have to face."
"Will you be one of that committee that must take hold of this thing?"
asked Billie.
"If the student body so wishes!"
"Well, we so wish!" came from twenty throats.
"You and Mrs. Green,--she is already one of us. As for you, Major Fern, we hardly know how to thank you for what you have done," said the president of the juniors.
"Don"t thank me! I have done nothing! Instead of selling a farm at a loss when I can"t get labor to work it, I am going to ask some beautiful young ladies to work it for me."
"We might drink him down," whispered a timid girl.
"Of course! Drink him down!"
And without more ado the twenty girls, with Molly chiming in and Edwin holding down a second, sang:
"Here"s to Major Fern! Drink him down!
Here"s to Major Fern! Drink him down!
Here"s to Major Fern! Here"s to Major Fern!
Drink him down! Drink him down! Drink him down!"
"Fine! That beats a wreath of bay," beamed the dear old gentleman. "And now I"ll take myself off. I forgot to say I"ll have the land turned under for you and give the use of a team whenever you need it."
He was gone. The girls, who only a few moments before had felt so depressed, were now filled with hope and animation. Degrees were to be had, after all. Of course it meant work, but that would be fun.
"Oh, gee! I"m happy!" cried Mary Culbertson. "But we must get busy in a hurry."
"First we must see Prexy and get her to cooperate," suggested Molly.
"Sure! Let"s do it in order, and find out if we do our part if the college authorities will do theirs. I dote on digging potatoes, myself,"
said Lilian.
Committees were formed immediately; one to see Prexy; one to go view their estate; another to look into housing conditions; another to canvas the student body and find out who would and who wouldn"t, who preferred to plant and who to reap.
Billie McKym was wild with enthusiasm. "Do you realize, Molly, that I won"t have to spend a summer in Newport, after all? I can put it up to my relations that I am needed in these parts. I mean to ask for a larger allowance, though, as I can help out some on the sly. I am thinking about buying some Close-to-Nature houses and presenting them to the agricultural club. We shall have to have overalls, too,--and farming implements.--I think I"ll make Grandmother and Uncle come across in good shape."
Prexy, Miss Walker, was not only willing to cooperate but delighted that the students were finding a way out of the difficulty. It was a deep grief to her, this raising of prices, and she knew only too well how many girls would be cut out of their degrees by this necessary step.
Many interviews with Major Fern had to be arranged and many meetings of committees had to be held, but finally everything was under way for the agricultural club"s work on the farm so kindly donated by its delighted owner.
"By Jove, I begin to feel that I"m helping to win the war!" he declared.
"I have been hating myself for a useless hulk of a veteran who was too old to fight and too old-fashioned to suggest to others how to fight, but if I can be the means of keeping a lot of girls at college I think I am doing pretty well; especially if by so doing, those girls will grow food enough for themselves. Every potato is equal to a hand grenade and every bean to a bullet."
CHAPTER XXIV
THE TRENCHES
Molly and Edwin found themselves deeper in this agricultural scheme than they had at first bargained for. If it was to be done at all, it must be well done and quickly. There must be order and system. Suddenly they awoke to the realization that if it was to be well done and quickly done, it was up to them, the Greens, to do it.
"I am afraid, my dear, that you must be the chaperone and I must turn farmer. This is a stupendous undertaking and for the good name of Wellington we must see it through."
"It will mean work all summer for you, when you so need a holiday, you poor old fellow."
"I need no more holiday than you do. You haven"t been idle one minute this whole college year. I have a feeling that this summer we have no business with holidays anyhow. The world is too busy, too upset for any of us, who are able, to lay off. I mean to dig and delve here at home and do all the good I can."
"I think we ought to rent the Orchard Home for the summer, don"t you?"
asked Molly, turning her head away so her husband could not see what it cost her to make that suggestion.
"Why, Molly honey, I can"t bear to think of it. It is hard enough on you not to be able to go to Kentucky for vacation, but I don"t think you should have to think of strangers as being among your apple trees."
"It won"t be bad, not nearly so bad as you think. At least, the little brown bungalow won"t be quite so lonesome as it would be empty all the year, and we might buy tons of seed with the rent money or even take care of some war orphans."
"I guess you are right,--you usually are. I"ll write to a real estate agent in Louisville immediately and put it on the market for the summer.
I hate to do it, though. Not that it will make so much difference to me. Wherever you are is my Orchard Home, honey!"
The Major"s farm was dubbed "The Trenches" by the members of the agricultural club. It was a suitable name, for these girls felt that they were in the war almost as much as the soldier boys themselves.