46 The Life Worth Living 



Dominion Line is one of the most careful 

 freighters in America) and arrived in such bad 

 order, he had to knock open four or five 

 crates to make one fit for a first-class hotel. I 

 apologized for putting him to so much trouble, 

 sent my agent direct to the hotels and took 

 orders for all I could supply at $3 a crate. 



Once more I smiled at the mental reflec- 

 tion of my eagle eye and massive brain and 

 fell to pitying my neighbours. 



The new arrangement went forward well. 

 I had shipped a thousand dollars' worth of 

 melons and was figuring out the gross earn- 

 ings and the net profits and planning great 

 outlays for the following year. 



A drought struck us, killed all the old vines 

 in a few days and ripened prematurely every 

 melon in the three fields I had planted for 

 succession. They were not fit to eat. I 

 cancelled the hotel orders, bought some hogs 

 and fed them on thirty acres of cantaloupes, 

 that cost me $2,000 in cold cash. 



