mrs. mortimer arrived with seed catalogs and farm books, to find saxon immersed in the farm books borrowed from edmund. saxon showed her around, and she was delighted with everything, including the terms of the lease and its option to buy.
“and now,” she said. “what is to be done? sit down, both of you. this is a council of war, and i am the one person in the world to tell you what to do. i ought to be. anybody who has reorganized and recatalogued a great city library should be able to start you young people on in short order. now, where shall we begin?”
she paused for breath of consideration.
“first, madrono ranch is a bargain. i know soil, i know beauty, i know climate. madrono ranch is a gold mine. there is a fortune in that meadow. tilth—i'll tell you about that later. first, here's the land. second, what are you going to do with it? make a living? yes. vegetables? of course. what are you going to do with them after you have grown them? sell. where?—now listen. you must do as i did. cut out the middle man. sell directly to the consumer. drum up your own market. do you know what i saw from the car windows coming up the valley, only several miles from here? hotels, springs, summer resorts, winter resorts—population, mouths, market. how is that market supplied? i looked in vain for truck gardens.—billy, harness up your horses and be ready directly after dinner to take saxon and me driving. never mind everything else. let things stand. what's the use of starting for a place of which you haven't the address. we'll look for the address this afternoon. then we'll know where we are—at.”—the last syllable a smiling concession to billy.
but saxon did not accompany them. there was too much to be done in cleaning the long-abandoned house and in preparing an arrangement for mrs. mortimer to sleep. and it was long after supper time when mrs. mortimer and billy returned.
“you lucky, lucky children,” she began immediately. “this valley is just waking up. here's your market. there isn't a competitor in the valley. i thought those resorts looked new—caliente, boyes hot springs, el verano, and all along the line. then there are three little hotels in glen ellen, right next door. oh, i've talked with all the owners and managers.”
“she's a wooz,” billy admired. “she'd brace up to god on a business proposition. you oughta seen her.”
mrs. mortimer acknowledged the compliment and dashed on.
“and where do all the vegetables come from? wagons drive down twelve to fifteen miles from santa rosa, and up from sonoma. those are the nearest truck farms, and when they fail, as they often do, i am told, to supply the increasing needs, the managers have to express vegetables all the way from san francisco. i've introduced billy. they've agreed to patronize home industry. besides, it is better for them. you'll deliver just as good vegetables just as cheap; you will make it a point to deliver better, fresher vegetables; and don't forget that delivery for you will be cheaper by virtue of the shorter haul.
“no day-old egg stunt here. no jams nor jellies. but you've got lots of space up on the bench here on which you can't grow vegetables. to-morrow morning i'll help you lay out the chicken runs and houses. besides, there is the matter of capons for the san francisco market. you'll start small. it will be a side line at first. i'll tell you all about that, too, and send you the literature. you must use your head. let others do the work. you must understand that thoroughly. the wages of superintendence are always larger than the wages of the laborers. you must keep books. you must know where you stand. you must know what pays and what doesn't and what pays best. your books will tell that. i'll show you all in good time.”
“an' think of it—all that on two acres!” billy murmured.
mrs. mortimer looked at him sharply.
“two acres your granny,” she said with asperity. “five acres. and then you won't be able to supply your market. and you, my boy, as soon as the first rains come will have your hands full and your horses weary draining that meadow. we'll work those plans out to-morrow also, there is the matter of berries on the bench here—and trellised table grapes, the choicest. they bring the fancy prices. there will be blackberries—burbank's, he lives at santa rosa—loganberries, mammoth berries. but don't fool with strawberries. that's a whole occupation in itself. they're not vines, you know. i've examined the orchard. it's a good foundation. we'll settle the pruning and grafts later.”
“but billy wanted three acres of the meadow,” saxon explained at the first chance.
“what for?”
“to grow hay and other kinds of food for the horses he's going to raise.”
“buy it out of a portion of the profits from those three acres,” mrs. mortimer decided on the instant.
billy swallowed, and again achieved renunciation.
“all right,” he said, with a brave show of cheerfulness. “let her go. us for the greens.”
during the several days of mrs. mortimer's visit, billy let the two women settle things for themselves. oakland had entered upon a boom, and from the west oakland stables had come an urgent letter for more horses. so billy was out, early and late, scouring the surrounding country for young work animals. in this way, at the start, he learned his valley thoroughly. there was also a clearing out at the west oakland stables of mares whose feet had been knocked out on the hard city pavements, and he was offered first choice at bargain prices. they were good animals. he knew what they were because he knew them of old time. the soft earth of the country, with a preliminary rest in pasture with their shoes pulled off, would put them in shape. they would never do again on hard-paved streets, but there were years of farm work in them. and then there was the breeding. but he could not undertake to buy them. he fought out the battle in secret and said nothing to saxon.
at night, he would sit in the kitchen and smoke, listening to all that the two women had done and planned in the day. the right kind of horses was hard to buy, and, as he put it, it was like pulling a tooth to get a farmer to part with one, despite the fact that he had been authorized to increase the buying sum by as much as fifty dollars. despite the coming of the automobile, the price of heavy draught animals continued to rise. from as early as billy could remember, the price of the big work horses had increased steadily. after the great earthquake, the price had jumped; yet it had never gone back.
“billy, you make more money as a horse-buyer than a common laborer, don't you?” mrs. mortimer asked. “very well, then. you won't have to drain the meadow, or plow it, or anything. you keep right on buying horses. work with your head. but out of what you make you will please pay the wages of one laborer for saxon's vegetables. it will be a good investment, with quick returns.”
