HAPPY HOLLOW FARM 191 



He'd made up his mind that it couldn't be 

 done, and so he didn't try. 



One of those spots makes a part of the wheat 

 field a twelve-acre piece that was sown last 

 fall to a fine beardless variety of red wheat. 

 The field has been harvested to-day. On the 

 older part, the part that was cleared and in 

 use before we bought the farm, the yield will 

 be twenty-seven or twenty-eight bushels to the 

 acre; on the new part, the part we've added, 

 we'll get ten bushels better. 



The first work in clearing that neglected 

 corner I did with my own ax, three years ago 

 last winter. Part of it was stony, and part 

 formed a low basin where the water would 

 stand through the spring; but the character of 

 the wild growths blackberry and sumac and 

 tangled wild grapevines showed that the soil 

 was rich. It was no slouch of a job to get the 

 rank stuff cut and piled for burning, for it 

 stood upon the ground almost as thick as the 

 wheat itself. But it was done by and by, and 

 then Sam came to help with the rock-hauling. 

 We lost count of the number of loads we 

 moved, but when we were through with it we 

 had a rough, heavy rock wall built along the 

 bank of the near-by creek that had been catch- 



