174 FARMING IT 



but rather a neighborhood of dignified elders, 

 and the addition of a half dozen of irrepressibles 

 did much to enliven things. To be sure their ad- 

 vent was regarded by the neighborhood with 

 mixed feelings, in which distrust was a predom- 

 inating ingredient; but the neighborhood had 

 successfully weathered our invasion, and as some 

 of the most conservative said, "We have seen 

 worse things, and have lived." 



All this time the young doctor had been paint- 

 ing and papering his little cottage, impaling him- 

 self on tacks and wire nails, abrading his shins 

 against sharp corners, raking, mowing and sod- 

 ding his lawn, and getting himself into very seri- 

 ous complications indeed with paint and glue 

 and oil and wax and adhesive paste, and lawn 

 mowers that would n't mow and hammers the 

 heads of which flew off and broke the chandeliers, 

 and rakes which he stepped on and which flew 

 up and hit him grievous blows on the brows, and 

 faucets which he forgot to shut off and which 

 leaked all over the front-room ceiling, which fell 

 down on his head, and shut-offs that squirted 

 ice-cold water up his sleeve and down his neck, 

 and flat baskets of crockery and china over 

 which he fell with terrific crashes and unexpur- 

 gated oratory, and which he subsequently tried 

 ineffectually to piece together with cementine 

 and fish glue, and finally buried in the back yard. 



