OR, WITH BRAINS, SIR. 275 



Now it is impossible for me to give you a detailed account 

 of all our doings. Sufficient is it to' say that as soon as the 

 warm weather opened, about the 15th of April, we went 

 to work at our planting. I say we, for I was so much inter- 

 ested in all that was going on that I could not stay in the 

 house, but, putting on a short dress, I joined Robert and his 

 boy Jack in the field. We had had several showers and the 

 soil was beaten down hard by the rain. At Jack's sugges- 

 tion the ground was loosened with a hoe and then raked 

 smooth. 



As I told you before, the farm was divided into two parts 

 by the narrow roadway or path. This path extended north- 

 and south, and at the upper or northern end, next the 

 woods, our first planting operations were begun. The first 

 thing we took was beans, string or bush beans, the early 

 yellow six weeks and early Mohawk. These were the two 

 sorts we selected from Washburn & Co.'s catalogue. Jack 

 took the hoe and began to break up the soil ; Robert taking 

 a rake went after him raking it all smooth, while I held the 

 seeds and performed the part of " the admiring spectator." 

 But this did not suit me. I could not be idle while others 

 worked'; so, as soon as a slight furrow had been drawn with 

 the hoe, I began to drop the seeds about two inches apart, as 

 the books directed. 



" Wait a bit ; we must not forget the phosphates. Jack, 



