March  18,  1916, 
we  older  children  drop  this  confidence 
and  faith  and  what  caused  us  to  let  it 
j:o7  I  low  can  we  get  it  back  once  more 
for  this  sensou’s  work? 
Literary  Work. — But  I  have  no  time 
to  think  it  ont  any  further.  The  light, 
flashes  back  and  Chcrrytop  is  at  me  with 
a  business  proposition.  Last  year  the 
boys  subscribed  to  a  paper.  They  brought 
it  to  n.e  for  examination  and  were  quite 
impressed  when  I  looked  at  the  adver¬ 
tisements  first  of  all.  “Where  a  man's 
treasure  is  there  will  his  heart  be  also.” 
Most  papers  have  to  depend  on  the  adver¬ 
tising  for  their  treasure.  See  that  and 
you  can  tell  what  they  have  in  their 
heart.  This  paper  had  clean  advertis¬ 
ing.  Otherwise  I  would  not  have  it  in 
the  house,  for  some  of  these  dreadful 
fakers  and  frauds  would  be  worse  than 
poison  for  boys.  So  the  boys  subscribed 
and  have  read  it  carefully.  The  sub¬ 
scription  had  run  out  and  they  wanted  to 
renew,  but  as  Chcrrytop  said,  “1  hate  to 
take  money  out  of  the  hank.  Can’t  we 
corn  it  now?” 
lie  was  so  earnest  about  it  that  I 
finally  told  him  that  if  he  would  write 
me  an  article  on  potting  strawberries  I 
would  pay  for  the  paper.  These  boys 
have  potted  thousands  of  plants  and  they 
ought  to  know  how.  So,  after  much 
work  and  thought  Cherry-top  produced 
the  following.  It  is  original — spelling 
and  all : 
Well,  first  you  have  a  field  of  straw- 
berrys,  and  then  the  ohl  plants  begin  to 
throw  ont  runners.  And  you  have  some 
little  pots  made  of  clay  about  two  inches 
high  and  three  inches  round  and  you  go 
to  the  field  and  take  some  pots  and  a 
trowel  and  you  come  to  a  runner  and  you 
dig  it.  up  and  put:  the  roots  in  the  put.  and 
fill  it  tip  with  a  little  dirt  in  the.  pot  over 
the  roots  and  put  a  little,  stone  on  the 
runner  to  make  it  stay  down  and  then 
you  dig  as  a  little  hole  in  the  ground  with 
the  trowel  and  put  the  pot  in  the  ground 
and  leave  it  for  about,  I  should  say  be¬ 
tween  three  and  six  weeks  and  then  go 
with  a  basket  and  a  knife  or  a  pair  of 
scissors  to  cut  the  runers  and  then  cut. 
the  runner  and  take  the  pot  out  of  the 
ground  and  turn  it  up  side  down  and 
give  it  a  little  thump  on  the  bottom  and 
then  pull  the  plant  out  and  you  will  see 
the  roots  have  grown  just  in  the  shape  of 
the  put  and  you  will  get  between  .$.02 
and  $.08  for  one. 
Sermons  t  \  Strawberries. — Here  be¬ 
fore  my  fire  on  this  fierce  night  I  could 
preach  a  full  sermon  on  this  essay.  Sev¬ 
eral  ppople  have  asked  me  if  I  have  no 
one  “warming  up"  to  take  my  place  in  t lie 
“box”  later  on.  It  looks  as  if  we  had 
him  here !  “First  we  have  a  strawberry 
field,”  says  Cherry-top.  I  knew  a  law¬ 
yer  once  who  lost  a  murder  case  because 
he  forgot  or  neglected  to  prove  legally 
that  the  man  had  actually  been  killed! 
Given  the  strawberry  bed  the  boy  knows 
that  he  can  make  these  plants  root  in  the 
puts.  lie  doesn't  know  why  or  how  the 
parent  plant  does  it.  but  he  just  has  that 
optimistic  faith  to  know  that  when  he 
puts  the  roots  into  that  soil  and  provides 
water  the  plant  will  do  the  rest.  No 
matter  how  the  March  hyena  snarls  out¬ 
side  my  boy  knows  that  when  July  comes 
the  runners  will  sprout  as  before  and 
mother  plant  will  feed  them  in  the  same 
old  way.  True,  he  must  sweat  aud  burn 
in  the  sun,  but  it  is  worth  while  when 
you  sell  the  plants.  Too  bad — but  there 
comes  a  call  from  upstairs  and  the  boys 
wander  off  for  bath  and  bed,  and  I  am 
left  by  the  snapping  fire.  I  think  of  the 
thousands  of  men  and  women  on  lonely 
farms  who  will  read  this  and  think  out 
what  it  all  means  with  me.  Many  of 
them  feel  as  if  they  were  in  prison,  for 
the  Winter  has  been  hard  and  long,  and 
through  the  dreary  waiting  for  warmer 
weather  they  have  become  a  little  dis¬ 
couraged.  I  only  wish  I  could- give  them 
some  of  the  hope  and  “optimism”  of  our 
children,  for  that  would  send  them  out  to 
the  season’s  work  with  t lie  faith  which  is 
half  the  battle.  It  is  like  the  big  log  on 
my  fire.  There  were  little  chips  and 
sticks  below  it — not  enough  apparently 
to  start  the  big  fellow  going.  I  thought 
it  would  escape,  but  one  dry  chip  at  the 
bottom  kept  at  it,  burning,  burning,  as  if 
to  shame  the  rest.  Suddenly  as  if  catch¬ 
ing  the  spirit  all  the  small  pieces  burst 
into  flame — and  here  they  have  the  big 
log  in  a  blaze.  ii.  \v.  c. 
HOPE  FARM  NOTES 
March  came  in  like  a  lion  in  our  val¬ 
ley,  and  by  Saturday  night  had  turned  to 
a  hyena.  The  ground  w;t*  frozen  solid 
and  covered  with  ice  and  snow.  A  fierce 
wind  blew  out  of  the  North,  with  teeth 
like  knives  as  we  drove  home  at  sun¬ 
down.  The  Summer  wood  was  still  over 
the  icy  hill,  frozen  to  the  ground.  Mer¬ 
rill  reported  death  among  the  peach  buds 
and  all  work  far  behind.  In  fact  Winter 
held  on  with  such  a  grip  that  it  was  a 
gloomy  enough  season  when  we  com¬ 
pared  notes  and  found  that  in  other 
years  at  this  date  wood  had  been  cut  aud 
piled,  spraying  started  and  plowing  sod 
even  begun.  And  there  were  rumors  of 
another  blizzard  on  the  way.  More,  to 
the  point,  there  were  memories  of  the 
great  storm  of  March  12,  1SSS — the  year 
snowdrifts  hung  to  the  fence  corners  uutil 
nearly  May  1. 
Supper. — The  children  realize  little  of 
what  all  this  delay  means  to  the  farm. 
They  rushed  up  to  announce  that  the  hens 
had  laid  24  eggs!  How  many  hens?  V 
truthful  answer  might  take  much  of  the 
glory  out  of  the  record  and  lead  to  long 
explanations.  Anyway  our  star  breeding 
pen  of  11  hens  laid  six  that  day.  They 
laid  nine  a  few  days  before.  There  were 
12  of  ns  for  supper.  The  two  older  girls 
are  away  at  school,  and  the  oldest  hoy  is 
in  Illinois  at  his  Salvation  Army  work, 
but  the  even  dozen  of  us  cleared  Up  an 
odd  -Tot  of  food.  Of  course,  a  New  Eng¬ 
land  family  must  have  baked  beans  on 
Saturday  night.  That  is  the  next  surest 
thing  to  fish  balls  on  Sunday  morning. 
The  way  I  piled  up  plates  for  the.  chil¬ 
dren  made  Mother  look  very  serious — 
though  the  children  were  happy  enough 
to  make  a  good  average  of  looks.  Then 
of  course  we  had  our  choice  of  white  or 
brown  bread.  There  was  a  plate  of  hard 
boiled  eggs,  sliced  to  go  with  a  bit  of 
lettuce,  a  few  fried  potatoes,  and  a  big 
plate  of  baked  apples.  The  house  was 
warm  and  the  light  was  good  and  by  the 
time  supper  was  over  most  of  us  had  for¬ 
gotten  the  March  hyena  which  raged  out¬ 
doors.  Outside,  with  an  empty  stomach, 
it  seemed  as  if  he  would  hold  the  fort 
until  May.  Inside  the  house  and  outside 
'This  ^wectis&mgLit 
is  all  about 
OmfOTt 
Three  million  wise  men  have  found 
&  suspender  which  is  comfortable — 
which  leaves  their  shoulders  free  for 
work  or  rest  or  play  yet  helps  clothes 
(it  and  gives  long,  honest  service. 
You  know the  name: 
For  eighteen  years  nation-  ***  y* 
■wide  advertising  has  chal¬ 
lenged  you  to  join  the  army  of  men 
who  know  what  comfort  means.  Join 
it  now — you  risk  nothing,  for  every 
psir  is  guaranteed  to  give  satisfac¬ 
tion  or  your  money  back — and 
you're  the  judge. 
Remember:  Shirley  President  means  t 
Suspender  Comfort — Guaranteed.  / 
President  Suspender  Co.  $ 
Shirley,  Mass.  M 
WITH  THIS  OUTFIT 
Farm  Conveniences. — Our  prospects 
for  getting  electricity  from  a  great  pow¬ 
er  company  are  not  so  bright  as  those 
of  .T.  G..  page  80.  We  are  informed  that 
we  must,  pay  most  of  the  first  cost  of 
bringing  the  current,  from  the  nearest 
present  power  line,  about  a  mile,  and 
must  then  pay,  not  a  flat  rate  but  by 
meter,  with  a  minimum  charge  which  i,s 
■Variously  estimated  at  from  $.%  to  .$60 
Iter  year  (I  have  no  recent  figures  on  this 
from  anyone  in  authority).  At  any  rate 
we  figure  that  we  can  dam  a  small  stream 
on  our  own  property  and  install  elec¬ 
tricity  for  about  what  it  will  cost  to 
bring  in  outside  power.  a.  w. 
New  York. 
U„  _  1,  _  C„„, Here  is  a  spmy  outtfit  com- 
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