"Not a bit--except some waste lands in Michigan I believe, that were left to aunt Lucy a year or two ago; but they are as good as nothing."
"Has he let Didenhover have the saw-mill too?"
"I don't know--he didn't say--if he has there will be nothing at all left for us to live upon. I expect nothing from Didenhover,--his face is enough. I should have thought it might have been for uncle Rolf. O if it wasn't for aunt Lucy and Hugh I shouldn't care!--"
"What has your uncle been doing all this year past?"
"I don't know, aunt Miriam,--he can't bear the business and he has left the most of it to Lucas; and I think Lucas is more of a talker than a doer. Almost nothing has gone right. The crops have been ill managed--I do not know a great deal about it, but I know enough for that; and uncle Rolf did not know anything about it but what he got from books. And the sheep are dying off--Barby says it is because they were in such poor condition at the beginning of winter, and I dare say she is right."
"He ought to have had a thorough good man at the beginning, to get along well."
"O yes!--but he hadn't, you see; and so we have just been growing poorer every month. And now, aunt Miriam, I really don't know from day to day what to do to get dinner. You know for a good while after we came we used to have our marketing brought every few days from Albany; but we have run up such a bill there already at the butcher's as I don't know when in the world will get paid; and aunt Lucy and I will do anything before we will send for any more; and if it wasn't for her and Hugh I wouldn't care, but they haven't much appetite, and I know that all this takes what little they have away--this, and seeing the effect it has upon uncle Rolf----"
"Does he think so much more of eating than of anything else?" said aunt Miriam.
"Oh no, it is not that!" said Fleda earnestly,--"it is not that at all--he is not a great eater--but he can't bear to have things different from what they used to be and from what they ought to be--O no, don't think that! I don't know whether I ought to have said what I have said, but I couldn't help it--"
Fleda's voice was lost for a little while.