But I shut him off. “Any of your countrymen, I mean.” “There is Dardoni; he might have a man. But no--not in the spring. There are my wife’s cousins. They have just come over. I could send--” “No,” I interrupted, “I can get men enough in the city.” “I believe you, signor,” he answered with a bow. I started to leave when rather hesitatingly he asked if I wouldn’t be good enough to step into the house and have a glass of wine with him. He had so interested me and what he said had so whetted my curiosity that I gladly accepted. He preceded me to the house and at the door called loudly for Maria. She came with her cheeks redder than ever and with the children clinging about her skirts, ushered us into the living room. There was no such neatness here as I had seen in the Sprague house. All was confusion; a mixture of sewing and play things and garlic-flavored cooking. What can one do with six children to feed and clothe? Maria made no apologies. This was home and home to her was a plant for the rearing of children. We seated ourselves at a bare wooden table and she brought out a bottle of red wine as light as new cider. I drank good health to Maria and success to Tony. I asked him many questions out of honest interest and he answered me frankly and with eagerness as your true pioneer ever does because of pride in his accomplishments. He told me that he had come here three years ago to work for Dardoni who had a grand estate--ten times as large as his--on the other side of the town. He had saved a little money before he came and with that, and what he earned later, he had bought these few acres of his own. Since then he had earned his living and something over. The thing that impressed me at the time, but the full significance of which I did not realize until later, was that he found a market for his eggs and produce right here in the village. Some of it he exchanged at the store for groceries but much of it he sold from door to door. It sounded like carrying coals to Newcastle. I passed a pleasant hour with Tony and then went back to my house where I puttered around the rest of the day doing odd jobs. When I came home that night and told my experiences to Ruth she only laughed to herself and made no comment. I told her I was going to take four or five of my own men out there next day and she said she guessed I would save time that way.