City and town life -- Fiction; Didactic fiction; Indiana -- Fiction; Orphans -- Fiction
"Spoiled shamelessly, dearest, that's what you are," said Leslie. "A
spoiled, pampered father! But to conclude. Mr. Swain helped you. Pay
back, Daddy, no matter what the cost; pay _back_. You help _him_, I'll
help _you!_ My idea was this: for weeks I've foreseen that you wouldn't
like to leave business this summer. Douglas is delving into that
investigation Mr. Minturn started him on and he couldn't be dragged
away. He's perfectly possessed. Of course where my men are, like Ruth,
'there will be I also,' so for days I've been working on a plan, and
now it's all finished and waiting your veto or approval."
"Thrilling, Leslie! Tell quickly. I'm all agog!"
"It's this: let's not go away and spend big sums on travel, dress, and
close the house, and throw our people out of work. Do you realize,
Daddy, how long you've had the same housekeeper, cook, maid and driver?
Do you know how badly I'd feel to let them go, and risk getting them
back in the fall? My scheme is to rent, for practically nothing, a log
cabin I know, a little over an hour's run from here--a log cabin with
four rooms and a lean-to and a log stable, beside a lake where there is
grand fishing and swimming."
"But Leslie----" protested Mr. Winton.
"Now listen!" cried the girl. "The rent is nominal. We get the house,
stable, orchard, garden, a few acres and a rented cow. The cabin has
two tiny rooms above, one for you, the other for Douglas. Below, it has
a room for me, a dining-room and a kitchen. The big log barn close
beside has space in the hay-mow for the women, and in one side below
for our driver, the other for the cars. Over the cabin is a grapevine.
Around it there are fruit trees. There is a large, rich garden. If I
had your permission I could begin putting in vegetables tomorrow that
would make our summer supply. Rogers----"
"You are not going to tell me Rogers would touch a garden?" queried Mr.
Winton.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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