[Pg 23] For half an hour they compared and checked off items, and he found her accounts accurate to a penny. "Father bought three geese and a gander from Ike Helm," she said. "They were rather expensive, but two were mated, and they call very well when tied out separated. Do you think it was too expensive?" she added timidly, showing him the bill. "No," he said, smiling. "I think it's all right. Mated decoys are what we need, and you can wing-tip a dozen before you get one that will talk at the right time." "That is true," she said eagerly. "We try our best to keep up the decoys and [Pg 24]have nothing but talkers. Our geese are nearly all right, and our ducks are good, but our swans are so vexing! They seem to be such fools, and they usually behave like silly cygnets. You will see to-morrow." [Pg 24] While she was speaking, her brother came quietly into the room with an open book in his hands, and Marche, glancing at it curiously, saw that it was a Latin grammar. "Where do you go to school, Jim?" he asked. "Father teaches me." "'Well,' he said pleasantly, 'what comes next, Miss Herold?'" Marche, rather astonished at the calibre of his superintendent, glanced from the boy to his sister in silence. The girl's head remained steadily lowered over the papers on her knee, but he saw[Pg 29] her foot swinging in nervous rhythm, and he was conscious of her silent impatience at something or other, perhaps at the interruption in their business discussion. [Pg 29] "Well," he said pleasantly, "what comes next, Miss Herold?" She handed him a list of the decoys. He read it gravely, nodded, and returned it. "You may count them for yourself to-morrow," she said. "Not at all. I trust you entirely," he replied laughingly. Then they went over the remaining matters, the condition of the pine timber, the repairs to the boats and blinds and stools, items for snaps, swivels, paint, cement, wire, none of which interested [Pg 30]Marche as much as the silent boy reading his Latin grammar by the smoky lamp interested him, or the
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