CHAPTER XIII 
PLANNING FOR THE TREES 
THE morning of September 17th a small frost 
fell, — just enough to curl the leaves of the corn 
and show that it was time for it to be laid by. 
Thompson, Johnson, Anderson, and the two men 
from the woods, who were diverted from their 
post-splitting for the time being, went gayly to 
the corn fields and attacked the standing grain 
in the old-fashioned way. This was not economi- 
cal; but I had no corn reaper, and there was none 
to hire, for the frost had struck us all at the same 
time. The five men were kept busy until the two 
patches—about forty-three acres—were in shock. 
This brought us to the 24th. In the meantime 
the men and women moved from the cottage to 
the more commodious farm-house. Polly had 
found excuses for spending $100 more on the 
furnishings of this house, — two beds and a lot 
of other things. Sunday gave the people a 
chance to arrange their affairs, and they cer- 
tainly appreciated their improved surroundings. 
The cottage was moved to its place on the 
line, and the last of the seeding on the north 
forty was done. Ten tons of fertilizer were 
sown on this forty-acre tract (at a cost of $250), 
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