Won't you be heavily loaded, as it is?"
She recalled swiftly the odd, makeshift team that Lauer depended
on--the mule, lop-eared and solemn, "und Gretchen, der cow." She had
cash and drafts for over three thousand dollars on her person. She
wondered if it would offend the sturdy independence of these simple,
kindly neighbors, if she offered to supply a four-horse team and wagon
for their mutual use? But she had been forestalled there, she learned
in the next breath.
"Oh, bother nothing," Mrs. Lauer declared. "Why, we'd be ashamed if we
couldn't help a little. And far's the load goes, you ought to see the
four beautiful horses your husband let Jake have. You don't know how
much Jake appreciates it, nor what a fine man he thinks your husband
is. We needed horses so bad, and didn't have the money to buy. So Mr.
Wagstaff didn't say a thing but got the team for us, and Jake's paying
for them in clearing and plowing and making improvements on your land.
Honest, they could pull twice the load we'll have. There's a good
wagon road most of the way now. Quite a lot of settlers, too, as much
as fifty or sixty miles out. And we've got the finest garden you ever
saw.
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