"Very well. If it's not bad form, I wasn't in the least astonished by your lecture about the roofs, because one finds your people have a breadth of knowledge that's remarkable. I once showed an old abbey near our place at home to some American tourists, and soon saw they knew more about its history than I did. There was a girl of seventeen who corrected me once or twice, and when I went to the library I found that she was right. The curious thing is that you're, so to speak, rather parochial with it all. One of my American employers treated me pretty well until he had to make some changes in his business. Took me to his house now and then, and I found his wife and daughters knew the old French and Italian cities. Yet they thought them far behind Marlin Bluff, which is really a horribly ugly place." "I know it," said Ida, laughing. "Still, the physical attractiveness of a town isn't it's only charm. Besides, are you sure you don't mean patriotic when you say parochial? You ought to sympathize with the former feeling." "I don't know. Patriotism is difficult when your country has no use for you." Ida did not reply, and it was a few minutes later when she said: "I'm glad I met you to-night, because we go home soon and there's a favor I want to ask. My brother is coming out to take a post on the irrigation work and I want you to look after him." "But he mayn't like being looked after, and it's very possible he knows more about the work than I do. I've only had a military training." "Jake has had no training at all, and is three or four years younger than I think you are." "Then, of course, I'll be glad to teach him all I can." "That isn't exactly what I mean, although we want him to learn as much as possible about engineering." "I don't see what else I could teach him." Ida smiled. "Then I must explain. Jake is rash and fond of excitement and gay society. He makes friends easily and trusts those he likes, but this has some drawbacks because his confidence is often misplaced. Now I don't think you would find it difficult to gain some influence over him." "And what would you expect me to do afterwards?" "You might begin by trying to make him see how interesting his new occupation is." "That might be harder than you think," Dick replied. "Molding concrete and digging irrigation ditches have a fascination for me, but I dare say it's an unusual taste. Your brother mightn't like weighing cement in the hot mixing sheds or dragging a measuring chain about in the sun."