72 SUCCESS WITH SMALL FRUITS. 



but, when accomplished, the work is done for all time, and 

 I have obtained at once by this method some splendid soil, 

 in which the plow sinks to the beam. A drought must be 

 severe, indeed, that can injure such land. 



There is a great difference in men in the performance of 

 this work. I have one who, within a reasonable time, would 

 trench a farm. Indeed, in his power to obey the primal 

 command to ^' subdue the earth," my man, Abraham, is a 

 hero, — although, I imagine, he scarcely knows what the word 

 means, and would as soon think of himself as a hippopota- 

 mus. His fortunes would often seem as dark as himself to 

 those who " take thought for the morrow ; " and that is saying 

 much, for Abraham is " colored " as far as man can be. 



I doubt whether his foresight often reaches further than 

 bedtime, and to that hour he comes with an honest right 

 to rest. He is a family man, and has six or seven children, 

 under eight years of age, whom he shelters in a wretched 

 little house that appears tired of standing up. But to and 

 from this abode Abraham passes daily, with a face as serene 

 as a May morning. In that weary old hovel I am satisfied 

 that he and his swarming little brood have found what no 

 architect can build, — a home. Thither he carries his diur- 

 nal dollar, when he can get it, and on it they all manage to 

 live and grow fat. He loses time occasionally, it is true, 

 through illness, but no such trifling misfortune can induce 

 him, seemingly, to take a long, anxious look into the future. 

 Only once — it was last winter — have I seen him dismayed 

 by the frowTiing fates. The doctor thought his wife would 

 die, and they had nothing to eat in the house. When Abra- 

 ham appeared before me at that time, " his countenance was 

 fallen," as the quaint, strong language of Scripture expresses 

 it. He made no complaints, however, and indulged in no 

 Byronic allusions to destiny. Indeed, he said very httle, 



