It must all be very interesting, but it was altogether too big a book for him to begin to read now.

"Ben Hur" looked solid and substantial; it would keep until next winter when he would have more time to read.

Then he picked up the "Conquest", volume one.

He backed up against the tree, settled himself into a comfortable position, took from his paper bag a chocolate at which he nibbled contentedly, and then away he went with Prescott to the land of the Inca and the glories of a vanished race! For an hour he read.

Then, reluctantly, he closed his book, wrapped up his package again, and went on his homeward way.
The new canal for which the farmers of Greenstreet had worked and waited so long had just been completed.