"We"re taking a run over the route of the new trolley line you"ve probably read about in the papers. Hadn"t heard of it yet? Well, it"s going to cut the Sycamore line at right angles in Montgomery, and run down into the coal fields. We"re going to haul coal by electricity--a new idea in these parts--and it"s going to be a big factor in stimulating manufactures in small centers. It"s going to be a big thing for this section--your farm is worth twenty dollars more an acre just on our prospectus."
"No doubt you"d be glad to take that twenty right now," remarked one of the strangers.
"Oh, I"ll wait for it," replied Fred, laughing.
"Are you implying that you"re likely to have to wait?" demanded Charles.
"My dear boy, we"re doing this just for you farmers. In the old days the railroads were all in league against the poor but honest farmer; he was crippled as much as he was helped by the railroads; but with the trolley the farmer can be in the deal from the jump. We want every farmer on this line to have an interest; we"re going to give him a chance to go in. Am I right, Evans?"
Evans warmed to the topic. He was a young broker and wore city clothes quite as good as Charles"s. It was going to be a great thing for the country people; the possibilities of the trolley line had not yet been realized. Social and economic conditions were to be revolutionized, and the world generally would be a very different place when the proposed line was built. Charles allowed his friends to do most of the talking and they discussed the project eloquently for an hour.
The men refused Fred"s invitation to go indoors, and said they would walk to the highway and the machine could pick them up.
When the brothers were alone, Charles spoke of the farm.
"I see you"ve got to work. The whole thing looks better than I ever saw it. I"m glad you"ve painted the barn red; there"s nothing like red for a barn. I must make a note of that; all barns should be painted red."
With a gesture he colored all the barns in the world to his taste. Fred grinned his appreciation of his brother"s humor.
"I thought that on Sundays all you young farmers. .h.i.tched a side-bar buggy to a colt and gave some pretty girl a good time."
"I"d be doing just that but for two reasons--I haven"t the colt or the side-bar, and I don"t know any girls. What about this trolley line? I thought the field was crowded now."
"Oh, Uncle Will and I are going to put this one through and we"re going to make some money out of it, too. There"s money in these things if you know how to handle "em. It"s in the promotion, not the operating."
"But I heard in town that the Sycamore line isn"t doing well. There are rumors--"
"Oh, I know about that; it"s only a fuss among the fellows who are trying to control it to reorganize and squeeze the bondholders. If father had lived he"d have kept it level. But we"re all out of it--away out and up the street."
"Glad to hear it," Fred remarked. The gift of easy and picturesque speech had been denied him. All his life he had heard his father talk in just this strain; and his Uncle William, while less voluble, was even more persuasive and convincing. Charles did not always ring true, but any deficiencies in this respect were compensated for by his agreeable and winning manners. Fred had the quiet man"s distrust of ready talkers; but he admired his brother. Charles was no end of a bright fellow and would undoubtedly get on.
"I tell you what I"ll do with you, old man," Charles continued. "I suppose you already know some of these farmers around here. We"re going to give them every chance to go in with us--let "em in on the ground floor. We feel that this should be the people"s line in the broadest sense,--give "em a share of the benefits,--not merely that they can flip a can of milk on board one of our cars and hustle it direct to the consumer and get back coal right at their door, but they shall partic.i.p.ate in the profits they help to create. Now listen to this; there"s not much you can do this winter out here and I stopped to make you an offer to solicit stock subscriptions among the country people. A lot of these farmers are rich fellows,--the farmers are getting altogether too much money for their own good,--and here"s an ideal investment for them, a chance to add to the value of their farms and at the same time earn a clean six per cent on our bonds and share in the profits on a percentage of common that we"re giving bondholders free gratis for nothing. What do you say to taking a hand with us? We"ll put you on a salary right away if you say so. The very fact that you"ve chosen to come here to live and take up farming will give you standing with the country folks."
Fred smiled at this.
"On the other side of the sketch the fact that I"m as ignorant of farming as the man in the moon is likely to rouse their suspicions. I"m much obliged, Charlie, but my job"s right here. I"m going to try to raise something that I can haul to town in a wagon and get money for. I haven"t your business genius. It would seem queer to me to go about asking people to take their money out of the bank to give me in exchange for pieces of paper that might not be good in the end. And besides, a good many of these country people swallowed the same hook when it was baited with Sycamore. It"s not a good time to try the same bait in this neighborhood,--not for the Holton family, at any rate."
"Mossback! I tell you we"re out of Sycamore with clean hands. Don"t you know that the big fellows in New York are the men who get in on such promotions as this and clean up on it! I"m giving you a chance that lots of men right here in this county would jump at. It"s a little short of a miracle that a trolley coal road hasn"t been built already. And think, too, of the prestige our family will get out of it. We"ve always been the only people in Montgomery that had any "git up and git." You don"t want to forget that your name Holton is an a.s.set--an a.s.set! Why, over in Indianapolis the fact that I"m one of the Montgomery Holtons helps me over a lot of hard places, I can tell you. Of course, father had plowed the ground, and the more I hear about him the more I admire him. He had vision--he saw things ahead."
"And he came pretty near dying busted," observed Fred.
"But no man lost a cent through him!" Charles flashed. "That makes me swell up with pride every time I think of it--that he took care of his friends. He saw things big, and those Mexican schemes were all right. If he"d lived, they would have pulled through and been big moneymakers."
They had been walking slowly towards Charles"s machine.
"I"m not saying anything against father," said Fred; "but the kind of things he took up strike me as dangerous. I know all about that plantation and the mine, too, for that matter. I don"t blame father for sending me down there, but I wish I had back the years I put on those jobs."
"Oh, rot! The experience was a big thing for you. And you got paid for it. You must have saved some money--wasn"t any way to spend money down there."
"I don"t keep an automobile," remarked Fred ruefully.
"By Jove, I can"t afford it myself, but I"ve got to make a front. Now those fellows--"
His companions were hallooing from the highway to attract his attention.
He waved and shouted that he was coming.
"Those fellows are in touch with a lot of investors. Nice chaps. I promised to get "em home for dinner, and I must skip. You"d better think over my proposition before turning it down for good. I don"t like to think of your being out here all winter doing nothing. You might as well take a hand with us. I"ll guarantee that you won"t regret it."
"I don"t believe I care to try it. I"m a born rube, I guess; I like it out here. And I"m going to stick until I make good or bust."
Charles had cranked his machine and jumped in.
"Look here, Fred," he said, raising his voice above the noise of the engine, "when I can do anything for you, I want you to call on me. And if you need money at any time, I want you to come to me or go to Uncle Will. In fact, he"s a little sore because you don"t drop in on him oftener. So long!"
The machine went skimming down the road, and when it reached the pike and Charles picked up his friends, Fred watched its slow ascent of Listening Hill, and waited for it to disappear beyond the crest.
CHAPTER IX
ON AN ORCHARD SLOPE
Fred moved off across the fields in quest of Perry. Charles never left him wholly happy. His long absence from home had in a way lessened his reliance on family ties, and an interview with his brother deepened the sense of his own dullness. He wondered whether it were not proof of his general worthlessness that he was so quickly adjusting himself to the conditions of rural life; and yet from such reflections his spirit quickly rebounded. In the very soil itself, he felt a kinship, born of a hidden, elusive, cramped vein of poetic feeling that lay deep in his nature. All life, he vaguely realized, is of a piece: man and the earth to which he is born respond to the same laws. He contemplated the wheatfield, tilled partly by his own hands, with a stirring of the heart that was new to his experience. He was wedded to this land; his hope was bound up in it; and he meant to serve it well.
He sprang over the fence into a woods pasture on Amzi Montgomery"s farm and strode on. He picked up a walnut and carried it in his hand, sniffing the pungent odor of the rind. It was as warm as spring, and the dead leaves, crisp and crackling under his tread, seemed an anomaly. The wood behind him, he crossed a pasture toward the barn and hesitated, seeing that Perry was entertaining visitors. He had fallen into the habit of dropping in at the Perrys" on Sunday afternoons and he was expected to-day, so he kept on. As he reached the barn lot, he identified Amzi Montgomery and Phyllis Kirkwood, to whom Perry was apparently dilating on the good points of a Jersey calf that was eyeing the visitors wonderingly.
"Don"t be afraid, Holton; my lecture is just over. You"ve heard it before and I"m not going to repeat it," Perry called to him.
"How do you do, Mr. Holton," said Phil.
He pulled off his hat and walked up to shake hands with her.
"I didn"t expect to find you here. I usually come over Sunday afternoons."
"Does that mean you wouldn"t have come if you"d known we were here!"
laughed Phil. "Oh, Uncle Amy, this is Mr. Fred Holton. He"s your next-door neighbor."
Amzi turned from his observation of the calf and took the cigar from his mouth. He remembered Fred Holton as a boy and the young man had latterly fallen within his range of vision in Main Street. He availed himself of this nearer view to survey Samuel Holton"s younger son deliberately.
Fred waited an instant for the banker to make a sign. Amzi took a step toward him and Fred advanced and offered his hand.
"How d" ye do, Fred," said Amzi, and looked him over again. He addressed him quite as cordially as he would have spoken to any other young man he might have found there. "Perry has told me about you. I guess you"ve got quite a job over there."
"Yes, but I was looking for a job when I took it," said Fred.
"I like being a farmer myself," said the banker, "when I know the corn"s growing while I"m in bed in town."
"I think I"ll stay up nights to watch my corn grow, if it ever does,"
said Fred.