i a 
LOOKING BACKWARD 395 
«and I guess I’ll have to thank you for throwing 
me down that day.” 
Zeb has married Lena, and a little cottage 
is to be built for them this winter, just east of 
the farm-house; and Lena’s place is to be filled 
by her cousin, who has come from the old 
country. 
Anderson and Sam both left in 1898, — poor, 
faithful Anderson because his heart gave out, 
and Sam because his beacon called him. 
Lars’s boys, now sixteen and eighteen, have full 
charge of the poultry plant, and are quite up to 
Sam in his best days. Of course I have had all 
kinds of troubles with all sorts of men; but we 
have such a strong force of “reliables”’ that the 
atmosphere is not suited to the idler or the hobo, 
and we are, therefore, never seriously annoyed. 
Of one thing I am certain: no man stays long 
at our farm-house without apprehending the uses 
of napkin and bath-tub, and these are strong 
missionary forces. 
Through careful tilth and the systematic return 
of all waste to the land, the acres at Four Oaks 
have grown more fertile each year. The soil was 
good seven years ago, and we have added fifty 
per cent to its crop capacity. The amount of 
waste to return to the land on a farm like this 
is enormous, and if it be handled with care, 
there will be no occasion to spend much money 
for commercial fertilizers. I now buy fertilizers 
only for the mid-summer dressing on my timothy 
