"It's a wonderful place," said Dick, "and I don't wonder the Doctor is proud of it. But he is too well along in years to handle such a big undertaking. I doubt if the ranch pays for ten years to come, and it means hard work and a lonely life for all of them. It's all right for Frank and Marian, but I'm sorry for the rest of the family." "Mrs. Morton is growing old fast with all this unaccustomed drudgery, and she is worried about the children's education, I can see," replied Alice. "Yes, there are two sides to it. I guess we'll stick to the law and little old Centerville; we may not die rich, but we'll be a lot more comfortable as we go along." Sherm took to the farm like the proverbial duck to the pond. He donned overalls that first morning and was off with Frank and Ernest to the fields before the little girls were out of bed. After breakfast Jane took Katie and Gertie to see the sights of the ranch. First to the spring under the old oak where the cold, clear water gushed from the rocks into a little basin, and then tumbled down a rocky channel under the springhouse and on for some hundred of yards farther before it widened out into the pond. "We can go swimming in the pond but there is a nicer place in the creek above the ford." "Oh, I'd love to learn to swim but we haven't any bathing suits." "Pooh, that doesn't matter, we just take some old dresses--there isn't anybody to see you, especially down at the creek. You know it's private ground and the trees hang over the pool all around so the sun only comes in a little bit. We'll get Marian to go with us." "I should think you could skate, too." "We do. I had a great time once last winter--Father told me the ice was too thin, but I saw a yearling calf go over all right and I thought the ice would bear me. But I guess calfie had more sense about the weak places. At any rate, I went through, near the middle. The water was up to my shoulders. Gee, it was cold and the ice kept breaking when I tried to climb out--and the men were all away. I most froze before I got to the bank, and then my skate straps were so wet I couldn't loosen them, besides my fingers were too numb to bend. I had to walk on the skates all the way to the house. My teeth chattered till they almost played tunes by the time I got to the door." Chicken Little shivered at the recollection. "What's the cunning little stone house for?" Gertie's attention was caught by a tiny hut without windows on the edge of the pond. "Oh, that's the smokehouse. We're so far from town that we put away a lot of meat every winter. The hams and sides of bacon are smoked there." "And that wooden building over yonder?" "The granary--for the wheat and rye. Those open log houses are the corn cribs." "My, it takes a lot of buildings to make a ranch." Katy was impressed in spite of herself. "We haven't been to the barns and corrals yet. I love the hay mow."