70 FARMING IT 



For about ten days I guarded them as care- 

 fully as one would tend a new-born babe, and 

 was rewarded tenfold by the astonishing pro- 

 gress the plants made. One warm sunshiny day 

 I opened the windows about halfway. Toward 

 night a warm, moist south wind began blowing, 

 and before dark a fine, almost summer-like rain 

 was falling, just the thing the plants needed. So 

 I opened the covers wider, that the plants might 

 get the benefit of the rain without the danger of a 

 heavy drenching fall, which might wash them out 

 of the ground. The next morning I found that 

 the unexpected had happened. The wind had 

 veered around to the northeast, it had become 

 bitterly cold, a biting northeaster was blowing, 

 and my plants were frozen stiff. 



It was a week before the ground thawed enough 

 to plant more seeds ; but I persevered, and, in 

 about ten days after planting, had a second crop 

 growing finely. 



I had also improved my time and had engaged 

 a farmer with a yoke of oxen to plough my land. 

 I had considerable difficulty in getting a yoke 

 of oxen, because that useful animal, the ox, was 

 an exceedingly rare bird in our vicinity. But I 

 always wanted my farm ploughed by oxen, and 

 I persevered until I found a yoke. It was some- 

 what more expensive than the quicker method 

 of ploughing with horses, but I preferred oxen. 



