198 CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FAKM. 



of a paddle: why not the earth? "When we 

 cut wood into saw-dust by steam, we do it with 

 the revolving teeth of a circular saw; why not 

 the clod into soil as fine, by the same mode of 

 action ? 



"What has the laborious dragging of a plow to 

 do with steam-mechanism, whose mode of action 

 lies in rapid revolution, which applied behind your 

 locomotive, (which must travel forward on the hard 

 soil,) could cut a trench a foot deep, and with its 

 case-hardened tines, rasp away the soil from the 

 land side to any pattern of fineness, as easily as a 

 saw can cut a board taking a moderate bite of 

 six or eight feet wide as it " 



"Gently over the stones!" said Mr. Greening, 

 suddenly waking up as the door opened and the 

 crash of a fallen tumbler announced the entry of 

 luncheon "a bite six feet wide. My heart! who 

 was it that took that, Sir? "What a happy-tight he 

 must have had! What, luncheon a'ready! well, it's 

 uncommon interesting, I'm sure. Why, you'll be 

 quite an Inventor ! It 's for all the world like what 

 my little girl reads out to me o' nights from her 

 'Life o' Columbus' somewhere in the beginning 

 part, where he talks to himself so, till they all 

 thought him out of his wits. I'm blest if it a'n't 



