HOUSE-CLEANIKG 57 



well worth the price asked, $300. I was pleased 

 with the team, and remembered a remark I had 

 heard as a boy from an itinerant Methodist min- 

 ister at a time when the itinerant minister was 

 supposed to know all there was to know about 

 horse-flesh. This was his remark : " There was 

 never a flea-bitten mare that was a poor horse." 

 In spite of its ambiguity, the saying made an 

 impression from which I never recovered. I al- 

 ways expected great things from flea-bitten grays. 



The team, wagon, harness, etc., added $395 to 

 the debit account against the farm. Polly se- 

 cured her girl, a green German who had not 

 been long enough in America to despise the 

 country. 



" She doesn't know a thing about our ways," 

 said Polly, " but Mrs. Thompson can train her 

 as she likes. If you can spend time enough with 

 green girls, they are apt to grow to your liking." 



On Thursday I saw Anderson and the new 

 team safely started for the farm. Then Polly, 

 the new girl, and I took train for the most inter- 

 esting spot on earth. 



Soon after we arrived I lost sight of Polly, 

 who seemed to have business of her own. I 

 found the mason and his men at work on the 

 cellar wall, which was almost to the top of the 

 ground. The house was on wheels, and had made 

 most of its journey. The house mover was in a 

 rage because he had to put the house on a hole 

 instead of on solid ground, as he had expected. 



