62 MY TEN-ROD FARM; 



CHAPTER V. 



^ 



A LONG LOOK AHEAD. 



THE month of August passed with very much the same 

 record as July. My flowers continued to grow and bloom 

 abundantly. They did not, however, yield me so much more 

 money. Fifty dollars was all I received for the whole month. 

 It was the dull season, I was told. Everybody in the country 

 had their own flowers, and the city consumers were at the 

 sea-side, or at the mountains. I kept my garden in perfect 

 order all the time, and with but little labor. In fact, I had 

 quite as much leisure as I had ever known. Once I visited 

 Mr. McTernan, gathering much useful information. Mr. 

 Felix called again, and seemed to find me doing well enough 

 to be left to myself till the first of September, when, he 

 said, many things would require attention. 



My doings, I found, had made a great stir in the village. 

 All sorts of stories were afloat in regard to me. Some 

 laughed at me, some pitied, and none helped me, save the 

 two store-keepers and strangers I met in the way of busi- 

 ness. 



At "the close of the first week of September, I felt the 

 first chill of the coming winter. My thermometer at my 

 front door fell one morning to forty degrees. Thereupon, I 



