HAPPY HOLLOW FARM 211 



best of life is give-and-take. Nobody really 

 thrives on having everything his own way. 

 That's plain enough; but we had to come to 

 the country to learn it. 



We entered upon our fourth year of farm- 

 ing with forty acres of our land in fine condi- 

 tion for cropping, clear of the old stumps and 

 stone, the soil so greatly improved in texture 

 by successive deeper and deeper breaking that 

 we could be sure of passing through dry weath- 

 er unharmed. The burning summer winds that 

 sometimes blight the prairie country to the 

 west of us never come into our hills, but occa- 

 sionally we have a dry spell rather long drawn 

 out. We've had one this year, and this has 

 shown as well as anything could the advantage 

 of handling our soil in our way. 



When I began writing this story it was early 

 May. Our corn was then six inches high. It 

 is now the middle of June. A fine, soft rain 

 has been falling steadily for twenty-four hours, 

 every drop of it going into the ground. This 

 is the first rain we've had in five weeks. Our 

 corn is now waist-high, its foliage of that rich 

 black-green the farmer likes to see. Not a leaf 

 has curled ; not a plant in the field has halted in 

 its vigorous growth. We're mighty glad the 



