on
honest earth when I leave the road. There must be no slip, Archie. The
responsibilities of the next fortnight are enormous. The happiness of
many people depends upon us. We'll stroll back to that big farm we
passed awhile ago. It's starred in the official guide books of the dusty
ramblers and the milk and bread and butter there will be excellent. And
the barn is red, Archie! A red barn is the best of all for sleeping
purposes. An unpainted barn advertises the unthrift of the owner, and
the roof is always leaky. The scent of moldy hay is extremely offensive
to me--suggests rheumatism and pneumonia. And a white barn stares at you
insolently. Whenever I see a white barn I prepare for bad luck. But a
red barn, Archie, warms the cockles of your heart. It enfolds you like a
canopy of dreams! I wouldn't have the red too glaring;--a certain
rustiness of tint is desirable--"

"Here endeth the lecture," Archie interrupted. "I am starving in a land
of milk and honey. Do I understand," he asked as they crossed the
bridge, "that tomorrow we're going to find jobs on Eliphalet's
plantation and kidnap his granddaughter?"

"Much as I hate to anticipate, Archie, it's not only little Edith we're
going to kidnap! We're going to steal the old man too!"

III

"I never saw a tramp yet that was worth his breakfast," snarled Grubbs,
the foreman of Eliphalet Congdon's farm. "But don't you bums think y'
can loaf round here. It's goin' t' be work from now right through till
the wheat's cut. Jail birds, both on y', I bet. Well, there ain't
nothin' round here to steal. Y' can both sleep in the hands' house back
yonder and hop to meals when the bell rings. There's some old hats in
the barn; shed them pies y' got on yer heads and try t' look like honest
men anyhow."

They partook of the generous midday meal provided in a big screened
porch adjoining the kitchen. Half a dozen other laborers, regularly
attached to Eliphalet's section of rich land, eyed the newcomers with
the disdain born of their long tenure. Perky was a capital actor; no one
would have imagined that he had ever seen either of the new hands
before. In the near-by fields the wheat shimmered goldenly in the sun,
quivering into the perfection that would bring it under the knife a few
days later. Help was scarce and the scorn of the foreman was assumed. He
had every intention of clinging to the latest comers, inexperienced
vagabonds though they might prove, until the pressing nee