What business had
he to drive in front of the house and then talk back to me as he did?
When is Ben coming back?"

"He expected to get home this morning," Mrs. Stubbles replied.

"He expected to do so, did he? H'm, he's always expecting to do things
he never does. He should have been here to look after the haying.
I've got too many things on my mind already without having to bother
with that."

"Don't be too hard on the dear boy, Simie. He is to bring the girls,
you know. They must have delayed him."

"Yes, yes, that's just like you; always excusing Ben, the worthless
scamp. If he were as interested in business as he is in running around
in the car and spending so much time in the city, what a help he would
be to me. But hurry up with that water, can't you? My, I'm sore!"

"You won't need me any more now, I suppose," Douglas remarked when Mrs.
Stubbles had left the room. "I might as well get to work."

"Who are you, anyway?" the injured man asked, turning his little
squinting eyes upon Douglas' face. For the first time he seemed to
realise that it was a stranger who had assisted him.

"I am John Handyman, Jake Jukes' help," was the reply. "I have come to
give you a hand with the hay this afternoon."

"And isn't Jake coming?"

"No. He has hay of his own to get in, and so I offered to come in his
stead."

"Just like Jake," Stubbles growled, "always thinking of himself. He
knows very well what a fix I am in. I don't know what this place is
coming to, anyway. One can't get a neighbour to do a hand's turn, and
the men you hire these days are as impudent as the devil."

"Don't you worry about the hay," Douglas soothed. "We can get it in
all right this afternoon."

"Do you know anything about haying?"

"I was brought up on a farm, and should know something about it."

"You look big and strong enough," and Stubbles viewed him from head to
foot. "Say, are you the chap who beat Jake in a wrestling bout lately?"

"So you heard about that little encounter, did you?"

"Oh, yes, I naturally hear of such things sooner or later. But what
are you doing here, anyway? You don't look like a man who has been in
the habit of hiring out."

"I'm just trying to earn my daily bread, and farming suits me at the
present time."

"I suppose I'll have to put up with you," Stubbles growled. "Get to
work at once, and no fooling, mind."

Douglas found the teamster a pleasant working companion, who loaded the