Laura had a favorite corner in the forge, where she often turned a hem
or a couplet. She was equally dexterous at either; and Sir Tom watched
her, too, with an admiring eye. I once heard him say:--
"Milady Laura, it is the regret of me life that I came into the world a
generation too soon."
Laura sometimes went away--she called it "going home," but we scoffed
the term--and the doldrums blew until she returned. Sir Tom dined with
us nearly every evening through the fall and early winter; and when he,
and Kate and Tom and the grand-girls, and the Kyrles, and Laura were at
Four Oaks, there was little to be desired. The grand-girls were nearly
five and seven now, and they were a great help to the Headman. My
terrier was no closer to my heels from morning to night than were these
youngsters. They took to country life like the young animals they were,
and made friends with all, from Thompson down. They must needs watch the
sheep as they walked their endless way on the treadmill night and
morning; they thrust their hands into hundreds of nests and placed the
spoils in Sam's big baskets; they watched the calves at their patent
feeders, which deceived the calves, but not the girls; they climbed into
the grain bins and tobogganed on the corn; they haunted the cow-barn at
milking time and wondered much; but the chiefest of their delights was
the beautiful white pig which Anderson gave them.
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