"
"But Leslie----" protested Mr. Winton.
"Now listen!" cried the girl. "The rent is nominal. We get the house,
stable, orchard, garden, a few acres and a rented cow. The cabin has two
tiny rooms above, one for you, the other for Douglas. Below, it has a room
for me, a dining-room and a kitchen. The big log barn close beside has
space in the hay-mow for the women, and in one side below for our driver,
the other for the cars. Over the cabin is a grapevine. Around it there are
fruit trees. There is a large, rich garden. If I had your permission I
could begin putting in vegetables tomorrow that would make our summer
supply. Rogers----"
"You are not going to tell me Rogers would touch a garden?" queried Mr.
Winton.
"I am going to tell you that Rogers has been with me in every step of my
investigations," replied Leslie. "Yesterday I called in my household and
gave them a lecture on the present crisis; I found them a remarkably well-
informed audience. They had a very distinct idea that if I economized by
dismissing them for the summer, and leaving the house with a caretaker,
what it would mean to _them_.
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