Say, too, that the housekeeper's place can't be kept for
her--must be filled at once. Push matters like a man, if you mean
to be a complete one, and bring her here, if she carries no more
with her than the clothes on her back!"
During the following days Jacob had time to familiarize his mind
with this startling proposal. He knew his father's stubborn will
too well to suppose that it could be changed; but the inevitable
soon converted itself into the possible and desirable. The sweet
face of Susan as she had stood before him in the wheat-field was
continually present to his eyes, and ere long, he began to place
her, in his thoughts, in the old rooms at home, in the garden,
among the thickets by the brook, and in Ann Pardon's pleasant
parlor. Enough; his father's plan became his own long before the
time was out.
On his second journey everybody seemed to be an old acquaintance
and an intimate friend. It was evening as he approached the
Meadows farm, but the younger children recognized him in the dusk,
and their cry of, "Oh, here's Jacob!" brought out the farmer and
his wife and Susan, with the heartiest of welcomes.
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