CHAPTER XL 
THE TIMOTHY HARVEST 
On Friday, the 25th, the children came home 
from their schools, and with them came Jim 
Jarvis to spend the summer holidays. Our in- 
vitation to Jarvis had been unanimous when he 
bade us good-by in the winter. Jack was his 
chum, Polly had adopted him, I took to him 
from the first, and Jane, in her shy way, admired 
him greatly. The boys took to farm life like 
ducks to water. They were hot for any kind 
of work, and hot, too, from all kinds. I could 
not offer anything congenial until the timothy 
harvest in July. When this was on, they were 
happy and useful at the same time,—a rare 
combination for boys. 
The timothy harvest is attractive to all, and 
it would be hard to find a form of labor which 
contributes more to the «esthetic sense than does 
the gathering of this fragrant grass. At four 
o’clock on a fine morning, with the barometer 
“set fair,’ Thompson started the mower, and 
kept it humming until 6.30, when Zeb, with a 
fresh team, relieved him. Zeb tried to cut a 
little faster than his father, but he was allowed 
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