`` It 's time she had a little holiday , believe ME . She has just about worked herself to death . Tom Holt can crochet beautifully , but he ca n't make a living for his family . He never seems to be able to get up early enough to do any work , but I notice he can always get up early to go fishing . Is n't that like a man ? '' Anne smiled . She had learned to discount largely Miss Cornelia 's opinions of the Four Winds men . Otherwise she must have believed them the most hopeless assortment of reprobates and ne'er - do-wells in the world , with veritable slaves and martyrs for wives . This particular Tom Holt , for example , she knew to be a kind husband , a much loved father , and an excellent neighbor . If he were rather inclined to be lazy , liking better the fishing he had been born for than the farming he had not , and if he had a harmless eccentricity for doing fancy work , nobody save Miss Cornelia seemed to hold it against him . His wife was a `` hustler , '' who gloried in hustling ; his family got a comfortable living off the farm ; and his strapping sons and daughters , inheriting their mother 's energy , were all in a fair way to do well in the world . There was not a happier household in Glen St. Mary than the Holts ' . Miss Cornelia returned satisfied from the house up the brook . `` Leslie 's going to take him , '' she announced . `` She jumped at the chance . She wants to make a little money to shingle the roof of her house this fall , and she did n't know how she was going to manage it . I expect Captain Jim 'll be more than interested when he hears that a grandson of the Selwyns ' is coming here . Leslie said to tell you she hankered after cherry pie , but she could n't come to tea because she has to go and hunt up her turkeys . They 've strayed away . But she said , if there was a piece left , for you to put it in the pantry and she 'd run over in the cat 's light , when prowling 's in order , to get it .
You do n't know , XXXXX , dearie , what good it did my heart to hear Leslie send you a message like that , laughing like she used to long ago .
Anne Cornelia Holt Holts Jim Mary Selwyns Winds do-wells reprobates