"Not to this Sligo man, I hope," said I, though I knew that we were in deep waters.

The wise man and the nurse came out on the 10.30 train, the nurse bringing comfort and aid, but the physician neither. After thoroughly examining the patient, he simply confirmed our fears.

"Serious disease to overcome, and only scant vital forces; no reasonable ground for hope."

Sir Tom gave me a smile as I entered the room after parting from the specialist.

"I've discounted the verdict," said he, "and the foreman needn't draw such a long face. I've had my fling, like a true Irishman, and I'm ready to pay the bill. I won't have to come back for anything, Williams; there's nothing due me; but I must look sharp for William and the old girl in the kitchen,--faithful souls,--for they will be strangers in a strange land. Will you send for a lawyer?"

The lawyer came, and a codicil to Sir Thomas's will made the servants comfortable for life. All that day and the following night we hung around the sick bed, hoping for the favorable change that never came. On the morning of the 17th it was evident that he would not live to see the sun go down. We had kept all friends away from the sick chamber; but now, at his request, Polly, Jane, and Laura were summoned, and they came, with blanched faces and tearful eyes, to kiss the brow and hold the hands of this dear man. He smiled with contentment on the group, and said:--

"Me friends have made such a heaven of this earth that perhaps I have had me full share."

"Sir Tom," said I, "shall I send for a priest?"

"A priest! What could I do with a priest? Me forebears were on the Orange side of Boyne Water, and we have never changed color."

"Would you like to see a clergyman?"

"No, no; just the grip of a friend's hand and these angels around me.

Asking pardon is not me long suit, Williams, but perhaps the time has come for me to play it. If the good G.o.d will be kind to me I will thank Him, as a gentleman should, and I will take no advantage of His kindness; but if He cannot see His way clear to do that, I will take what is coming."

"Dear Sir Tom," said Jane, with streaming eyes, "G.o.d cannot be hard with you, who have been so good to every one."

"If there's little harm in me life, there's but scant good, too; I can't find much credit. Me good angel has had an easy time of it, more's the pity; but Janie, if you love me, Le Bon Dieu will not be hard on me. He cannot be severe with a poor Irishman who never stacked the cards, pulled a race, or turned his back on a friend, and who is loved by an angel."

I asked Sir Tom what we should do for him after he had pa.s.sed away.

"It would be foine to sleep in the woods just back of Janie's forge, where I could hear the click of her hammer if the days get lonely; but there's a little castle, G.o.d save the mark, out from Sligo. Me forebears are there,--the lucky ones,--and me wish is to sleep with them; but I doubt it can be."

"Indeed it can be, and it shall be, too," said Polly. "We will all go with you, Sir Tom, when June comes, and you shall sleep in your own ground with your own kin."

"I don't deserve it, Mrs. Williams, indeed I don't, but I would lie easier there. That sod has known us for a thousand years, and it's the greenest, softest, kindest sod in all the world; but little I'll mind when the breath is gone. I'll not be asking that much of you."

"My dear old chap, we won't lose sight of you until that green sod covers the stanchest heart that ever beat. Polly is right. We'll go with you to Sligo,--all of us,--Polly and Jane and Jack and I, and Kate and the babies, too, if we can get them. You shall not be lonesome."

"Lonesome, is it? I'll be in the best of company. Me heart is at rest from this moment, and I'll wait patiently until I can show you Sligo.

This is a fine country, Mrs. Williams, and it has given me the truest friends in all the world, but the ground is sweet in Sligo."

His breath came fainter and faster, and we could see that it would soon cease. After resting a few minutes, Sir Tom said:--

"Me lady Laura, do you mind that prayer song, the second verse?"

Laura's voice was sobbing and uncertain as it quavered:--

"Other refuge have I none,"

but it gained courage and persuasiveness until it filled the room and the heart of the man with,--

"Cover my defenceless head, With the shadow of Thy wing."

A gentle smile and the relaxing of closed hands completed the story of our loss, though the real weight of it came days and months later.

It was long before we could take up our daily duties with anything like the familiar happiness. Something had gone out of our lives that could never be replaced, and only time could salve the wounds. The dear man who had gone was no friend to solemn faces, and living interests must bury dead memories; but it was a long time before the click of Jane's hammer was heard in her forge; not until Laura had said, "It will please _him_, Jane."

CHAPTER LVIII

BACTERIA

January, February, and March pa.s.sed with more than the usual snow and rain,--fully ten inches of precipitation; but the spring proved neither cold nor late. During these three months we sold b.u.t.ter to the amount of $1283, and $747 worth of eggs; in all, $2030.

The ploughs were started in the highest land on the 11th of April, and were kept going steadily until they had turned over nearly 280 acres.

I decided to put the whole of the widow's field into corn, lots 8, 12, and 15 (84 acres) into oats, and 50 acres of the orchards into roots and sweet fodder corn. Number 13 was to be sown with buckwheat as soon as the rye was cut for green forage. I decided to raise more alfalfa, for we could feed more to advantage, and it was fast gaining favor in my establishment. It is so productive and so nutritious that I wonder it is not more generally used by farmers who make a specialty of feeding stock. It contains as much protein as most grains, and is wholesome and highly palatable if properly cured. It should be cut just as it is coming into flower, and should be cured in the windrow. The leaves are the most nutritious part of the plant, and they are apt to fall off if the cutting be deferred, or if the curing be _done carelessly_.

Lot No. 9 was to be fitted for alfalfa as soon as the season would permit. First, it must receive a heavy dressing of manure, to be ploughed under. The ordinary plough was to be followed in this case by a subsoiler, to stir the earth as deep as possible. When the seed was sown, the land was to receive five hundred pounds an acre of high-grade fertilizer, and one hundred pounds an acre of infected soil.

The peculiar bacterium that thrives on congenial alfalfa soil is essential to the highest development of the plant. Without its presence the gra.s.s fails in its chief function--the storing of nitrogen--and makes but poor growth. When the alfalfa bacteria are abundant, the plant flourishes and gathers nitrogen in k.n.o.bs and bunches in its roots and in the joints of its stems.

I sent to a very successful alfalfa grower in Ohio for a thousand pounds of soil from one of his fields, to vaccinate my field with. This is not always necessary,--indeed, it rarely is, for alfalfa seed usually carry enough bacteria to inoculate favorable soils; but I wished to see if this infected soil would improve mine. I have not been able to discover any marked advantage from its use; the reason being that my soil was so rich in humus and added manures that the colonies of bacteria on the seeds were quite sufficient to infect the whole ma.s.s. Under less favorable conditions, artificial inoculation is of great advantage.

Wonderful are the secrets of nature. The infinitely small things seem to work for us and the infinitely large ones appear suited to our use; and yet, perhaps, this is all "seeming" and "appearing." We may ourselves be simply more advanced bacteria, working blindly toward the solution of an infinite problem in which we are concerned only as means to an end.

"Why should the spirit of mortal be proud," until it has settled its relative position with both Sirius and the micro-organisms, or has estimated its stature by view-points from the bacterial world and from the constellation of Lyra. Until we have been able to compare opinions from these extremes, if indeed they be extremes, we cannot expect to make a correct estimate of our value in the economy of the universe. I fancy that we are apt to take ourselves too seriously, and that we will sometime marvel at the shadow which we did not cast.

CHAPTER LIX

MATCH-MAKING

The home lot took on a home look in the spring of 1898. The lawn lost its appearance of newness; the trees became acquainted with each other; the shrubs were on intimate terms with their neighbors, and broke into friendly rivalry of blossoms; the gardens had a settled-down look, as if they had come to stay; and even the wall flowers were enjoying themselves. These efforts of nature to make us feel at ease were thankfully received by Polly and me, and we voted that this was more like home than anything else we had ever had; and when the fruit trees put forth their promise of an autumn harvest in great ma.s.ses of blossoms, we declared that we had made no mistake in transforming ourselves from city to country folk.

"Aristocracy is of the land," said Polly. "It always has been and always will be the source of dignity and stability. I feel twice as great a lady as I did in the tall house on B---- Street."

"So you don't want to go back to that tall house, madam?"

"Indeed I don't. Why should I?"

"I don't know why you should, only I remember Lot's wife looked back toward the city."

"Don't mention that woman! She didn't know what she wanted. You won't catch me looking toward the city, except once a week for three or four hours, and then I hurry back to the farm to see what has happened in my garden while I've been away."