xiv INTRODUCTION. 



nothing to be undone everything was to be done. 

 It was not exactly a virgin soil, but, like a lovely 

 widow, it had lain fallow a friendly farmer made 

 use of that word so long, that it would be grateful 

 for the touch of a rake or a hoe. There was no gar 

 den, no fence, no orchard, and no fruit-trees of any 

 kind except one apple-tree, but then the nurseries 

 and a little labor would make this right. 



An unpleasant suspicion crossed my mind that 

 perhaps it would have been better if some of these 

 things had been done to my hand, and that possibly 

 I was not exactly the man to do them in the best 

 way ; but a second perusal of &quot; Ten Acres Enough&quot; 

 was enough for me, and these absurd doubts were 

 banished forever. If an uneducated mechanic could 

 leave Philadelphia, rescue a decaying farm, and make 

 it splendidly remunerative, why could not an edu 

 cated lawyer from New York convert an uninjured 

 farm into the eighth or ninth we Americans have 

 added a few to them wonder of the world ? 



The affair was as simple as could be. With a class- 

 book of botany, a recipe from Professor Mapes, a 

 few cuttings of some wonderful new berry of which, 

 doubtless, there were plenty, and Bridgman s &quot; Gar 

 dener s Assistant,&quot; the result was certain. It was 

 merely a question of seeds, weeds, and manure the 



