Jessie had already taken the pail and started for the pantry; when she re-appeared with it filled, she said, demurely: "I thought that you said you were a cattleman, Mr. Wilson." "Oh, bless you! Don't you know the old saying about a shoemaker's wife? Lots of folks that can count their cattle by the thousand head would be glad if they could be sure of as much nice milk and butter as you girls get off your two cows, Miss Jessie. It's management, you see." "You mean want of management, don't you?" returned Jessie, smiling. Mr. Wilson's jolly laugh floated back to us as he went down the walk toward the horse that was waiting for him at the gate, and then I roused myself to observe that Joe was again hunting for his tools. He presently rescued them from Ralph's destructive little hands, and set to work, only pausing the while to remark: "I reckons dat ar watah sto'age camp gwine be a 'mighty good place fur to sell we all's melon crap at." CHAPTER IX AN IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT The Hortons' place was some five miles below ours, if one followed the main road, but they were often passing the house on their way to and from the little country store and post-office. So it was not surprising that Mrs. Horton should reappear in a few days with a large bundle of sewing of her own for Jessie to do, and the intelligence that she had interviewed several of the neighbors, some of whom had said that they would gladly employ Jessie. "You are so good, Mrs. Horton," Jessie exclaimed gratefully. "It will be a real help to us if we are able to earn a little in this way." "Maybe you won't feel so anxious to do it when you see what I've brought," the good woman said, as she proceeded to untie her bulky bundle. "You see," she explained, "Jake nearly tore the coat from his back when he went up to salt those cattle the other night. He seems, from what I can make out, to have had a regular circus with himself, and I'm so busy, what with the housework and being obliged to do all the trading--for Jake never will go to the store if he can get out of it--I've had no time to mend it. I put it right in here with the other things, hoping that you or Leslie wouldn't mind mending it for me." My very spine seemed to stiffen at the idea of mending the clothing that had been torn while its wearer was making a futile attempt to burn our house, but Jessie, knowing nothing of all this, and naturally trustful, replied tranquilly: "Certainly, we will, Mrs. Horton, if you think we can do it well enough." "Oh! anybody can do it well enough. If I had my way with it I'd put it into the stove and have done with it," she announced frankly. "It's seen its best days. But it appears to me that the longer Jake wears a thing the better he likes it. What a figure he would have made in the days of Methuselah, to be sure!" She shook the coat out and laid it on the table. Jessie turned it over, examining some gaping rents, evidently of recent make. Finally,