18o5. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



559 



aging his form, was, to get the most possible for the 

 pi'esent, without reference to the future. Under 

 this system, he found that every succeeding year 

 required closer engineering to make the ends meet, 

 and tliis, too, notwitlistanding his two boys had got 

 big enough to do almost a day's work each. ]ilr. 

 Burton had followed quite another system in the 

 management of his farm, and by the help of his 

 boys, who were twins, about the age of Mr. Russel's 

 second boy, he found his income from the farm 

 slightly increasing. Farming at that time was at a 

 pretty low ebb, and every body, as Mr. Russel said, 

 seemed to be leaving it to get a Hving and property 

 some other way. 



The most casual observer would see at a glance 

 that Mr. llussel was not a man of much taste, 

 from the appearance and arrangement of his build- 

 ings. His house, which he had built himself, stood 

 close by the road-side, and his barn stood nearly 

 opposite to the house on the other side, still nearer 

 the road than the house. Xo trees or shrubs shel- 

 tered or adorned either the house or barn. His 

 neighbor liiuton's was somewhat unlike this. His 

 place manifested no particular refinement of taste, 

 but it had a different "air" about it. It stood far- 

 ther back from the road, and had several fine large 

 cherry trees near it, and two towering pear trees, 

 and there were shrubs and flowers around and near 

 it, which gAxe it a cheerful aspect. And then the 

 barn and out-buildings wei-e back from the house, 

 and nearly out of sight, liid by the apple trees be- 

 tween them and the house. 



]Mr. llussel had the shop-room soon finished off, 

 and a hand hired to come and learn both himself 

 and sons to make boots. He had three sons in all, 

 but the youngest was too young to do much ; he 

 had one daughter. Mr. Burton had two sons — the 

 twins — and three daughters. 



Russel applied himself with a M'ill to his new 

 trade, and Ikirton dug away upon the form, with, 

 perhaps, a little more energy and determination 

 than ever. For two or three years Russel gained 

 upon his neighbor in worldly thrift. Times in his 

 new business were good, and money flowed in easily, 

 but, some how, it seemed to get away unaccountably 

 fast. The first season after Russel and his sons be- 

 gun on their boot-making, they planted a piece to 

 potatoes and a small patch of corn, and had what 

 was called a garden too, l)ut it was very little at- 

 tention they all got. Occasionally Mr. Russel him- 

 self would get out with a hoe, but the boys usually 

 shunned that kind of recreation, and after the first 

 season, they all concluded they had rather take a 

 few more stitches, or drive a iew more pegs a day, 

 and buy what was needed in the family, in perfer- 

 ence to working out doors for exercise, to raise it, 

 and to take their exercise in more agrecal)le ways. 

 But these agreeable ways Avere extremely apt to 

 cost money in some shajje, or to lead to it, at least. 

 A "quarter" or two every little wliile, and a dollar 

 now and then, were l)ut trifles, and soon earned ! 

 So it went to the end of the year, when it was found 

 that there were not half the "shot in the locker" 

 they exjjectcd to see there wlien tlie year began. 



One cause of this was found to be owing to the 

 amount of doctors' bills they had to pay ; for, from 

 some cause or other, there had been a good deal of 

 sickness in the family of late. In the winter they 

 were some of them on the borders of a fever from 

 a "terrible cold," and in summer all sorts of com- 

 plaints troubled them. But, notwithstanding all 



these "pull backs," they made more money than 

 they did at farming, and could see more at the end 

 of the year. 



Meantime farmer Burton kept on the even tenor 

 of his way — improving his farm somewhere every 

 year ; sometimes reclaiming a ])iece of low ground 

 by ditching and draining, and improving the high 

 ground with the muck from the low, and the 

 low M'ith the sand or loam of the high. As the 

 "twins" grew up toward manhood, they felt, lilve all 

 young men, as though they could do wonders for 

 themselves l)y leaving the old hive and striking out 

 to make their fortunes on their own hook ; but the 

 father's experience had taught him that "in union 

 there is strength," and he advised them to remain 

 at home with him and lie would allow them so much 

 a month, or if they preferred, they would all work 

 in common, and each share such a part of the pro- 

 fits. The advice of the father, aided by the per- 

 suasions of an exeellent mother and afi"ectionate sis- 

 ters, who all aided in making home ])leasant, over- 

 came all inclinations to go abroad. The father and 

 sons formed a sort of joint stock, or rather, joint 

 labor company, out doors, and the mother and 

 daughters its counterpart in the house. The mo- 

 ther was a very intelligent woman, and acquainted 

 with the ways of the world to more than an ordi- 

 nary extent for one in her place — ha\-ing taught 

 school in her younger days. 



As has been said, Mr. Burton's farm consisted of 

 less than a hundred acres, containing, in fact, but 

 seventy. For a while he thought of bu}ing a part 

 of his neighljor Russel's, but he found the more and 

 better a piece of ground was cultivated, the more a 

 great deal it produced. Acting on this hint, it was 

 not long before they found they had as much land 

 as they could manage with profit. Their form was 

 situated ten miles from Boston, and in two or three 

 }ears from the time to which this story refers at 

 its commencement, a railroad was constructed 

 through the town, and not far from the farms of 

 Mr. Russel and 'Sh: Burton. This gave facihties 

 for getting the products of the farm, its fruits and 

 early vegetables, to market, and Burton and his 

 sons found each year added to their income. 



There c;mie to be a great dill'erence between the 

 two homes of the two families here spoken of. The 

 Russel family were all engaged upon boots in some 

 form or other. The mother and daughter "bound, 

 stitched and fitted" boots, and the father and sons 

 made them, and when the boot business was good, 

 they handled a good deal of money. But all must 

 have times tor reei-eation, and the only recreation 

 that suggested itself to the younger members of 

 Mr. Russel's fomily, was some game, or a ride, or 

 hunting and fishing, or something of this sort. 

 Home was a jjlace to work, to eat, and to sleep in; 

 but they never thought of it as a place to enjoy 

 themselves, and there was little in I'act there attrac- 

 tive. Scarcely a news])ai)er was to be found there, 

 and few books" beside the Bible, ])salm-book and the 

 greasy "dog-cared" school books, that had been 

 used in school. We say, "had been," for since the 

 boot-making had begun," little time had been spared 

 to going to school. 



But it was quite otherwise in the family of Mr. 

 Burton ; each member of the family took a iieriodi- 

 cal of some kind ! so there were no loss than four 

 wcekUes and three monthlies. Among these were 

 some of the l)est agricultural and horticultural peri- 

 odicals published in the country, the rest were re- 



