The tall proprietor examined the impressively groomed Wallingford and his impressive luggage with some curiosity, and went behind the little counter to inspect the register.
"I"d like two rooms and a bath," said Wallingford, as the other looked up thoughtfully.
"Two! Two?" repeated Jim Ranger, looking about the room. "Some ladies with you? Mother or sister, maybe?"
"No," answered Wallingford, smiling. "A bedroom and sitting-room and a bath for myself."
"Sitting-room?" repeated the proprietor. "You know, you can sit in this office till the "leven-ten"s in every night, and then the parlor"s--" He hesitated, and, seeing the unresponsive look upon his guest"s face, he added hastily: "Oh, well, I reckon I can fix it. We can move a bed out of number five, and I"ll have the bath-tub and the water sent up as soon as you need it. This is wash-day, you know, and they"ve got the rinse water in it. I reckon you won"t want it before to-night, though."
"No," said J. Rufus quietly, and sighed.
Immediately after lunch, J. Rufus, inquiring again for the proprietor, was told by Molly that he was in the barn, indicating its direction with a vague wave of her thumb. Wallingford went out to the enormous red barn, its timbers as firm as those of the hotel were flimsy, its lines as rigidly perpendicular as those of the hotel were out of plumb, its doors and windows as square-angled as those of the hotel were askew. Across its wide front doors, opening upon the same wide, cracked old stone sidewalk as the hotel, was a big sign kept fresh and bright: "J. H. Ranger, Livery and Sales Stable." Here Wallingford found the proprietor and the brawny boy in the middle of the wide barn floor, in earnest consultation over the bruised hock of a fine, big, draft horse.
"I"d like to get a good team and a driver for this afternoon,"
observed Wallingford.
"You"ve come to the right place," declared Jim Ranger heartily, and when he straightened up he no longer looked awkward and out of place, as he had in the hotel office, but seemed a graceful part of the surrounding picture. "Bob, get out that little sorrel team and hitch it up to the new buggy for the gentleman," and as Bob sprang away with alacrity he turned to Wallingford. "They"re not much to look at, that sorrel team," he explained, "but they can go like a couple of rats, all day, at a good, steady clip, up hill and down."
"Fine," said Wallingford, who was somewhat of a connoisseur in horses, and he surveyed the under-sized, lithe-limbed, rough-coated sorrels with approval as they were brought stamping out of their stalls, though, as he climbed into his place, he regretted that they were not more in keeping with the handsome buggy.
"Which way?" asked Bob, as he gathered up the reins.
"The country just outside of town, in all directions," directed Wallingford briefly.
"All right," said Bob with a click to the little horses, and clattering out of the door they turned to the right, away from the broad, shady street of old maples, and were almost at once in the country. For a mile or two there were gently undulating farms of rich, black loam, and these Wallingford inspected in careful turn.
"Seems to be good land about here," he observed.
"Best in the world," said the youngster. "Was you thinkin" of buyin"
a farm?"
Wallingford smiled and shook his head.
"I scarcely think so," he replied.
""Twouldn"t do you any good if you was," retorted Bob. "There ain"t a farm hereabouts for sale."
To prove it, he pointed out the extent of each farm, gave the name of its owner and told how much he was worth, to all of which Wallingford listened most intently.
They had been driving to the east, but, coming to a fork in the road leading to the north, Bob took that turning without instructions, still chattering his local Bradstreet. Along this road was again rich and smiling farm land, but Wallingford, seeming throughout the drive to be eagerly searching for something, evinced a new interest when they came to a grove of slender, straight-trunked trees.
"Old man Mescott gets a hundred gallons of maple syrup out of that grove every spring," said Bob in answer to a query. "He gets two dollars a gallon, then he stays drunk till plumb the middle of summer.
Was you thinkin" of buyin" a maple grove?"
Wallingford looked back in thoughtful speculation, but ended by shaking his head, more to himself than to Bob.
They pa.s.sed through a woods.
"Good timber land, that," suggested Wallingford.
"Good timber land! I should say it was," said Bob. "There"s nigh a hundred big walnut trees back in there a ways, to say nothing of all the fine oak an" hick"ry, but old man Ca.s.s won"t touch an ax to nothing but underbrush. He says he"s goin" to will "em to his grandchildren, and by the time they grow up it"ll be worth their weight in money. Was you thinkin" of buyin" some timber land?"
Wallingford again hesitated over that question, but finally stated that he was not.
"Here"s the north road back into town," said Bob, as they came to a cross-road, and as they gained the top of the elevation they could look down and see, a mile or so away, the little town, its gray roofs and red chimneys peeping from out its sheltering of green leaves.
Just beyond the intersection the side of the hill had been cut away, and clean, loose gravel lay there in a broad ma.s.s. Wallingford had Bob halt while he inspected this.
"Good gravel bank," he commented.
"I reckon it is," agreed Bob. "They come clear over from Highville and from Appletown and even from Jenkins Corners to get that gravel, and Tom Kerrick dresses his whole family off of that bank. He wouldn"t sell it for any money. Was you thinkin" of buying a gravel bank, mister?"
Instead of replying Wallingford indicated another broken hillside farther on, where shale rock had slipped loosely down, like a disintegrated slate roof, to a seeping hollow.
"Is that stone good for anything?" he asked.
"Nothing in the world," replied Bob. "It rots right up. If you was thinkin" of buyin" a stone quarry now, there"s a fine one up the north road yonder."
Wallingford laughed and shook his head.
"I wasn"t thinking of buying a stone quarry," said he.
Bob Ranger looked shrewdly and yet half-impatiently at the big young man by his side.
"You"re thinkin" o" buyin" somethin"; I know that," he opined.
Wallingford chuckled and dropped his big, plump hand on the other"s shoulder.
"Elephant hay only," he kindly explained; "just elephant hay for white elephants," whereat the inquisitive Bob, mumbling something to himself about "freshness," relapsed into hurt silence.
In this silence they pa.s.sed far to the northwest of the town, and a much-gullied highway led them down toward the broader west road. Here again, as they headed straight in to Blakeville with their backs to the descending sun, were gently undulating farm lands, but about half a mile out of town they came to a wide expanse of black swamp, where cat-tails and calamus held sole possession. Before this swamp Wallingford paused in long and thoughtful contemplation.
"Who owns this?" he asked.
"Jonas Bubble," answered Bob, recovering cheerfully from his late rebuff. "Gosh! He"s the richest man in these parts. Owns three hundred acres of this fine farmin" land we just pa.s.sed, owns the mill down yander by the railroad station, has a hide and seed and implement store up-town, and lives in the finest house anywhere around Blakeville; regular city house. That"s it, on ahead. Was you thinkin"
o" buyin" some swamp land?"
To this Wallingford made no reply. He was gazing backward over that useless little valley, its black waters now turned velvet crimson as they caught the slant of the reddening sun.
"Here"s Jonas Bubble"s house," said Bob presently.
It was the first house outside of Blakeville--a big, square, pretentious-looking place, with a two-story porch in front and a quant.i.ty of scroll-sawed ornaments on eaves and gables and ridges, on windows and doors and cornices, and with bright bra.s.s lightning-rods projecting upward from every prominence. At the gate stood, bare-headed, a dark-haired and strikingly pretty girl, with a rarely olive-tinted complexion, through which, upon her oval cheeks, glowed a clear, roseate under-tint. She was fairly slender, but well rounded, too, and very graceful.
"h.e.l.lo, Fannie!" called Bob, with a jerk at his flat-brimmed straw hat.
"h.e.l.lo, Bob!" she replied with equal heartiness, her bright eyes, however, fixed in inquiring curiosity upon the stranger.
"That"s Jonas Bubble"s girl," explained Bob, as they drove on. "She"s a good looker, but she won"t spoon."