The Rescue of an Old Place 



the best blood and treasure of the state 

 before it was accomplished. 



NO man In spite of the illustrious warning given 



by M. Curtius, there lives not a man with 

 soul so dead as not to be fired with am- 

 bition to make dry ground out of his 

 meadow, if he is so unlucky as to own 

 one ; and he always starts in with figures 

 on paper to show what a fine income of 

 hay is to result from a comparatively small 

 investment of labor and gravel. But the 

 work goes on, then more work and more 

 gravel, till finally the account of this part 

 of the business gets mislaid, so that by 

 the time the far distant hay crop begins to 

 materialize, a haze has settled over the 

 amount of capital (literally) sunk, and 

 only the hay returns are brought promi- 

 nently to the front. 



When we first surveyed the half acre or 

 so of salt-grass which had been left over 

 on our side of the fence when the road 

 was built across the meadow, it did not 

 seem of much importance, one way or the 

 other. The English grass grew luxuriantly 

 down to the edge of it, and the soft, fine 

 salt-hay was excellent for bedding, the 

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