288 HAPPY HOLLOW FARM 



of an hour or so after dinner while the machine 

 is being overhauled or a broken strap of the 

 harness mended. The extra hand would like it 

 first-rate if he might spend that hour squatting 

 on his heels in the shade, dozing. The loss in 

 his wages for that hour wouldn't be much 

 only ten or fifteen cents ; but we don't like loaf- 

 ing in the middle of a summer day. I like to 

 watch for those chances. If I can get the idler 

 to hitch a mule to a garden tool and clean out 

 a few rows of potatoes, or run through the 

 sweet corn patch, or attend to some other little 

 job like that, it sets us definitely ahead. It 

 isn't often in summer that we'd like to have a 

 man and team spend a whole day straight on 

 the garden while the fields wait. If the garden 

 work of midsummer isn't done in odd hours, 

 it's very likely to be neglected altogether. 

 Time after time those short catch-as-catch-can 

 jobs have "made" a potato crop for us or saved 

 some other crop in the garden from ruin. 



So you'll understand what I mean in saying 

 that the actual cost of getting our own stuff to 

 our own table is almost nothing. If we failed 

 to keep an eye on these small turns and tricks 

 as most farmers do fail the cost might be 

 multiplied many times over. But for that sav- 



