“Against the sun, so that it’s sort of pink where the sun strikes it?” said Bessie.  “Yes, what a lovely place!”

“Well, that’s where we’re going,” said Eleanor.

“But—­but that doesn’t look a bit like a farmhouse!” said Bessie, surprised.  “I thought—­”

“You thought it would be more like the Hoover farm, didn’t you?” laughed Eleanor.  “Well, of course that’s only our house, and Dad built a nice one, on the finest piece of land he could find, because we were going to spend a good deal of time there.  There’s electric light and running water in all the rooms and we’re just as comfortable there as we would be in the city.”

“It’s beautiful, but really, Miss Eleanor, I don’t believe most farmers could afford a place like that, even if they were a lot better off than Paw Hoover—­”

“They could afford a lot of the comforts, Bessie, because they don’t cost half as much as you’d think.  The electric light, for instance, and the running water.  The light comes from power that we get from the brook right on the farm, and it costs less than it does to light the house in the city.  And the water is pumped from the well by a windmill that cost very little to put up.  You see, there’s a big tank on the roof, and whenever there’s a wind, the mill is started to running and the tank is filled.  Then there’s enough water on hand to last even if there shouldn’t be enough wind to turn the mill for two or three days, though that’s something that very seldom happens.  If all the farmers knew how easily they could have these little comforts, and how cheap they are, I believe more of them would put in those conveniences.”

“Oh, how much easier it would have been at Hoover’s if we’d had them!” sighed Bessie.  “There we had to fill the lamps every day, and every bit of water we used in the house had to be drawn at the well and carried in pails.  It was awfully hard work.”

“You see, Maw Hoover didn’t have such an easy time, Bessie,” said Eleanor.  “She had all that work about the house to do for years and years.  She didn’t need to be so mean to you, but, after all, she might have been nicer if she’d had a pleasanter life.  It’s easy to be nice and agreeable when everything is easy, and everything goes right, but when you have to work hard all the time, if you’re a little bit inclined to be mean, the grind of doing the same thing day after day, year after year, seems to bring the meanness right out.  I’ve seen lots of instances of that, and I’m perfectly sure that if I were a farmer’s wife, and had to work like a slave I’d be a perfect shrew and there’d be no living with me at all.”

They turned in from the road now, the wagon in which Bessie and Eleanor rode in the lead, and came into a pretty avenue that led up a gentle grade to the ridge on which the house was built.  There were trees at each side to provide shade in the hot part of the day, and for a long distance on each side of the trees there were well kept lawns.