“’You said that your riddle was to take three from two and have four.  My plan is very simple; just add three to two and you have not only four but five!  Take a vacation from business, but stay at home; do your own garden improvements with your head and a horse and cart and a pair of strong hands with a pick and spade to help you out, for you can’t, with impunity, turn an office man, all of a sudden, into a day labourer.  As to hewing the knoll into terraces up and down again, tear up that confounded plan.  Restore the ground on nature’s lines, and you’ll have a better windbreak for your house and garden in winter than the best engineer could construct, besides having a retreat for hot weather where you can sit in your bones without being observed by the neighbours!’

“He spoke very slowly, letting the smoke wreaths float before his eyes, as if in them he sought the solution he was voicing.

“’A terrace implies closely shorn turf and formal surroundings, out of keeping with this place; besides, young people with only a general maid and a useful man can’t afford to be formal,—­if they would, the game isn’t worth the strain.’ (Did I not tell you that he observes?)

“’Let us take a look at the knoll to-morrow and see what has grown there and guess at what may be coaxed to grow, and then you can spend a couple of months during this summer and autumn searching the woods and byways for native plants for the restoration.  This reservoir building is your opportunity; you can rob the river valley with impunity, for the clearing will begin in October, consequently anything you take will be in the line of a rescue.  So there you are—­living in the fresh air, improving your place, and saving money at both ends.’

“‘By George!  It sounds well, as far as I’m concerned!’ ejaculated Bart, ’but how will such a scheme give Mary a vacation from housekeeping and the everlasting three meals a day?  She seldom growls, but the last month she too has confessed to feeling tired.’

“’I think it’s a perfectly fascinating idea, but how will it give Bart a “complete change, away from the sound of the beat of time,” as the doctor puts it?’ I asked with more eagerness than I realized, for I always dislike to be far away from home at night, and you see there has been whooping cough in the neighbourhood and there are also green apples to be reckoned with in season, even though the Infant has long ago passed safely through the mysteries of the second summer.

“The Man from Everywhere did not answer Bart at all, but, turning to me with the air of a paternal sage and pointing an authoritative forefinger, said, somewhat sarcastically, I thought, ’What greater change can an American have than leisure in which to enjoy his own home?  For giving Time the slip, all you have to do is to stop the clocks and follow the sun and your own inclinations.  As to living out of doors, the old open-sided hay barn on the pasture side of the knoll, that you have not decided whether to rebuild or tear down, will make an excellent camp.  Aside from the roof, it is as open as a hawk’s nest.  Don’t hurry your decision; incubate the idea over Sunday, Madam Penrose, and I’ll warrant by Monday you will have hatched a really tangible plan, if not a brood of them.’