his Ben saw in less than one electric second. Then he had the
boy's two shoulders in his hands, and Dike was saying, "Hello, Pop."

Of the roomful, Dike and old Ben were the only quiet ones. The others
were taking up the explanation and going over it again and again, and
marveling, and asking questions.

"He come in to--what's that place, Dike?--Hoboken--yesterday only. An'
he sent a dispatch to the farm. Can't you read our letters, Dike, that
you didn't know we was here now? And then he's only got an hour more.
They got to go to Camp Grant to be, now, demobilized. He came out to
Minnie's on a chance. Ain't he big!"

But Dike and his father were looking at each other quietly. Then Dike
spoke. His speech was not phlegmatic, as of old. He had a new clipped
way of uttering his words:

"Say, Pop, you ought to see the way the Frenchies farm! They got about
an acre each, and, say, they use every inch of it. If they's a little
dirt blows into the crotch of a tree, they plant a crop in there. I
never seen nothin' like it. Say, we waste enough stuff over here to
keep that whole country in food for a hundred years. Yessir. And
tools! Outta the ark, believe me. If they ever saw our tractor, they'd
think it was the Germans comin' back. But they're smart at that. I
picked up a lot of new ideas over there. And you ought to see the old
birds--womenfolks and men about eighty years old--runnin' everything on
the farm. They had to. I learned somethin' off them about farmin'."

"Forget the farm," said Minnie.

"Yeh," echoed Gus, "forget the farm stuff. I can get you a job here
out at the works for four-fifty a day, and six when you learn it right."

Dike looked from one to the other, alarm and unbelief on his face.
"What d'you mean, a job? Who wants a job! What you all----"

Bella laughed jovially. "F'r heaven's sakes, Dike, wake up! We're
livin' here. This is our place. We ain't rubes no more."

Dike turned to his father. A little stunned look crept into his face.
A stricken, pitiful look. There was something about it that suddenly
made old Ben think of Pearlie when she had been slapped by her
quick-tempered mother.

"But I been countin' on the farm," he said miserably. "I just been
livin' on the idea of comin' back to it. Why, I---- The streets here,
they're all narrow and choked up. I been countin' on the farm. I want
to go back and be a farmer. I want----"

And then Ben Westerveld spoke