156 Good and Bad Farming Contrasted. 
tame bird, for plucking, kept him along, by giving him an occa- 
sional " good trade," until a substantial span of farm horses had 
passed into a couple of rickety, heavy skeletons, whose emaciated 
frames needed recruiting to render them legal tenders to the crows. 
Such was the team with which Philip, the crafty trader, found 
himself provided for the labors of the second spring upon the 
farm. Had the loss of his substantial horses been the only one 
he had sustained, he could well have afforded to have Messrs. 
"Jim Crow & Co." foreclose their mortgage on his present 
span, gone to work like a man, thoroughly drilled in the school 
of bitter experience, and obtained a pair answerable to his pur- 
pose, and more than recovered, by persevering industry, what he 
had lost by consummate folly. But time idled away in worse than 
idle speculations, had drawn the chains of indolence more firmly 
around him, and one miscalculation following another, had blunted 
his sensibilities, so that, on the whole he thought he could get 
along that spring with his team, pretty well, and, " perhaps, when 
they were turned to grass they'd thrive, and when thrify, he could 
put them off for a better span." In full possession of such poor 
delusive hopes, his spring work was gone through with, for the 
spring passed away, and summer brought its own peculiar labors. 
The manner in which his crops were got in, our readers can judge 
as well as for us to describe. Still, trade, jovial company, any 
thing but stay at home, practical labor, were stepping stones in 
Philip's path of future success, for success he was all along calcu- 
lating to attain. 
Thus, year followed year, each strewing new shadows of gloom 
along his path, until the sun had fifteen times fulfilled his mission 
of measuring seasons, preparing seed times and maturing harvests, 
by his annual heat, since Philip took upon himself the individu- 
ality and responsibility of manhood. 
During this period a young family had grown up around him ; 
happy in imitating a father's virtues, where they could occasion- 
ally be found, and wounded by his follies, which, like entailments 
of woe, were everywhere visible around the home it was his duty, 
and should have been his happiness, to bless. 
The cut (fig. 14,) represents most clearly the condition of Philip's 
premises, when we saw them at the time we have just noted. The 
dwelling, which might (and would under the influence of Thomas 
Russell) have been an abode of elegance — of taste — as you see, is 
without architectural form, having been got up as cheap as possi- 
ble, to meet the exigencies of its owner, who is still dreaming of 
prospering without patient, persevering, industry. Look at the 
roofs, and see their disconnected and graceless proportions. The 
siding, as you see, is of all widths, and of all varieties of material. 
Here a wide hemlock board, loose at one end to catch the flying 
