"Let's go to Fernborough as usual," said Quincy, and Tom, without
argument, seconded the motion. This time, Tom was Quincy's guest.
They were young men now. Quincy was seventeen and Tom nineteen, but
the fields were as green, the fruit as sweet, the vegetables as crisp
and fresh, and their friends as glad to see them as when they were
children.
A year had brought some changes. Mrs. Maxwell mourned the loss of her
son Obadiah, who had been gored by an angry bull and found dead in
the West pasture. For a wonder, Mr. Strout showed some sympathy,
perhaps because the little boy was his namesake.
The Rev. Caleb Howe had passed away. In his place the church had
called the Rev. Hudson Quarles, a bachelor of forty, whose hobby was
fancy fowls. He joined the Grange and talked on "Poultry Raising" and
"A Small Fortune in Squabs." His hens were the heaviest for their age
in the community, and to prove it he was always willing to "weigh up"
at the grocery store.
Mr. Strout called him a crank and played a joke on him that led to a
division in the church and came near costing Mr. Strout his position
as organist.
There were two scales on the long grocery counter. Mr. Strout
tampered with one of them by affixing two pounds of lead to it which
he covered with gold paint to hide the deception.
Bob Wood's hen was weighed in the fraudulent scales and beat Mr.
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