64 THE FAT OF THE LAND 



I hope to keep a fair sod on these lots, and they 

 will be large enough to give the animals exercise 

 and keep them healthy. I hope the carpenter 

 is pushing things on the house. I want to get 

 you into better quarters as soon as possible, and 

 I want the cottage moved out of the way before 

 we seed the lot." 



"They're pushing things all right, I guess; 

 that man Nelson is a hustler." 



When I reached the farm I found Johnson and 

 Anderson tearing down the old fence that was 

 our eastern boundary. None of the posts were 

 long enough for my purpose, so all were con- 

 signed to the woodpile. 



My neighbor on the north owned just as much 

 land as I did. He inherited it and a moderate 

 bank account from his father, who in turn had 

 it from his. The farm was well kept and pro- 

 ductive. The house and barns were substantial 

 and in good repair. The owner did general 

 farming, raised wheat, corn, and oats to sell, 

 milked twenty cows and sent the milk to the 

 creamery, sold one or two cows and a dozen 

 calves each year, and fattened twenty or thirty 

 pigs. He was pretty certain to add a few hun- 

 dred dollars to his bank account at the end of 

 each season. He kept one man all the time and 

 two in summer. He was a bachelor of twenty- 

 eight, well liked and good to look upon : five feet 

 ten inches in height, broad of shoulder, deep of 

 chest, and a very Hercules in strength. His face 



