"And we dinna want ye should," replied Dannie. "All we want ye to
do, is to boss."
"But I'm going to do the planting mesilf," Mary was emphatic. "It
will be good for me to be in the sunshine, and I do enjoy working
in the dirt, so that for a little while I'm happy."
"If ye want to put the onions in the highest place, I should think
I could spade ane bed now, and enough fra lettuce and radishes."
Dannie went after a spade, and Mary Malone laughed softly as she
saw that he also carried an old tin can. He tested the earth in
several places, and then called to her:" All right, Mary! Ground
in prime shape. Turns up dry and mellow. We will have the garden
started in no time."
He had spaded but a minute when Mary saw him run past the window,
leap the fence, and go hurrying down the path to the river. She
went to the door. At the head of the lane stood Jimmy, waving his
hat, and the fresh morning air carried his cry clearly: " Gee,
Dannie! Come hear him splash!"
Just why that cry, and the sight of Dannie Macnoun racing toward
the river, his spade lying on the upturned earth of her scarcely
begun onion bed, should have made her angry, it would be hard to
explain. He had no tackle or bait, and reason easily could have
told her that he would return shortly, and finish anything she
wanted done; but when was a lonely, disappointed woman ever
reasonable?
She set the dish water on the stove, wiped her hands on her apron,
and walking to the garden, picked up the spade and began turning
great pieces of earth.
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