58 THE FAT OF THE LAND 
«JT have sent for every stick of timber and every 
cobbling block I own, to get this house over that 
hole; there’s no money in this job for me; you 
ought to have.dug the cellar after the house was 
placed,” said he. _ 
I made friends with him by agreeing to pay 
$30 more for the job. The house was safely 
placed, and by Saturday night the foundation 
walls were finished. 
Sam and Zeb had made a good beginning on 
the ploughing, the teams were doing well for 
green ones, and the men seemed to understand 
what good ploughing meant. Thompson and 
Johnson had spent parts of two days in the 
potato patches in deadly conflict with the bugs. 
-« We've done for most of them this time,” 
said Thompson, “but we’ll have to go over the 
ground again by Monday.” 
The next piece of work was to clear the north 
forty (lots 1 to 5) of all fences, stumps, stones, 
and rubbish, and all buildings except the cottage. 
The barn was to be torn down, and the horses 
were to be temporarily stabled in the old barn 
on the home lot. Useful timbers and lumber 
were to be snugly piled, the manure around the 
barns was to be spread under the old apple trees, 
which were in lot No. 1, and everything not use- 
ful was to be burned. “Make a clean sweep, 
and leave it as bare as your hand,” I told 
Thompson. “It must be ready for the plough 
as soon as possible.” 
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