"I'se goin' tek keer ob hit; yo' needn't fur to fret about dat. I'se goin' at hit, hammer an' tongs, day arter to-morry mornin'." "Why not to-morrow?" Jessie inquired eagerly; "Leslie and I can help you." "I reckons dere can't nobody help me much w'en I'se done got a broken reaper to wuck with." "Oh, that's too bad! How long will it take to get it fixed?" Jessie asked. "I'se done get hit fixed to-morry, sure, den--we see." "Leslie and I will help you," Jessie repeated. "The wheat is worth more than any sewing that we can do. If we can get it marketed it will pay up all our bills, nearly, won't it, Joe?" "I spec' maybe hit will, honey," Joe returned, grinning complacently. "Doan you chillen fret about nothin'," he continued earnestly. "Dem bills all goin' be paid up, clean to de handle." I confess that I felt far less sanguine than he appeared to be on that point. "Isn't it a mercy that our corn and wheat have been let to grow in peace this year?" I said, after Mrs. Horton had taken her leave. "It's the first year since we have been here that such a thing has happened." "I hope it will be the last year that we will have to try raising a crop without a fence," Jessie replied. For our fence building had stopped abruptly with the digging of some post holes on that day in April. Pumping the water out of the mine had been an expensive piece of work, and all the valley people who had lost relatives in the accident, many who had not, indeed, had come gallantly to the Gray Eagle's aid when that task was undertaken. Because of the aid that we had furnished, our fence was still unbuilt. CHAPTER X RALPH AND I GO BLACKBERRYING "Chillen's, dere's lots ob blackberries on de hill above de w'eat fiel'," Joe stopped to remark, as he was about starting for the blacksmith shop with the reaper, the next morning. "They'll have to stay there as far as I'm concerned," returned Jessie, who was busily engaged in sewing up the gaping rents in Mr. Horton's coat; "I haven't time to gather them." "Me do det 'em!" exclaimed Ralph, starting up from the floor, where he had been vainly trying to fasten some paper boots on Guard's paws. Guard did not object, but, when a boot was, after much trouble, partially secured, he took it in his mouth and calmly pulled it off. "Me do dit 'ackburries yite now," reiterated Ralph. "No," said Jessie, "Ralphie can't go." Thus summarily enjoined, Ralph began to roar, as a matter of course. Joe, who had already started to climb into the reaper seat, came back and looked in at the door, the better to look reproachfully at us. "I doan like dish yer sperrit ob money-gettin'," he declared, frowning. "Denyin' a little chile all his innercent pleasures fo' de sake ob scrapin' a few censes togedder!" he exclaimed severely.