Page:Emma Speed Sampson--The shorn lamb.djvu/163

Rh between the master of The Hedges and the master of Mill House, but he refrained.

"We won't say anything about it until a few weeks before school starts in the fall, but I am going to get busy with the County Superintendent and see to it that what law for compulsory education exists in Virginia shall be enforced right here on our farm."

Old Abe was too old to educate, but he was not too old to be taught something and the day after Philip got home Abe was to learn that matters were not going to be quite so easy for him and his lazy sons and grandsons as they had been for the many years since Rolfe Bolling got so fat he had turned over the management of the farm to him.

Old Abe's attitude at first was one of amusement towards his master's young son, who had been so busy learning how to read that he had let the farm get out of his hands.

"I 'low you is done forgot what lil' you know'd 'bout farmin', Phup," he said slyly, as he and Philip started to make the rounds of the farm on a tour of inspection.

Philip looked keenly at the stalwart old man at his side. Surely, he had come of a powerful race. He was over seventy, but as straight as an arrow, with not an ounce of superfluous