housekeeping, and raising all those barn-yard creatures. We are thinking
of adding a small family of canaries to our stock; they are much sought
after and readily sell. Oh, I could not get on at all without my papers.
They are everything to me. Why, just listen to what I know about corn,"
she went on, with a proud light in her handsome eyes. "Kentucky was
once a leading state in raising corn, and she will be again," and here
followed facts and statistics singularly incongruous from rosy lips to
the listening ears of the city girl. "There is nothing, Amelia, that
pays like doing a thing well. For instance, our own Kentucky is not
famous for well-kept farms, but I could not afford to have my fences
down, my fields choked with weeds, and my stock depredating elsewhere."

"But how do you manage your servants? They are the great bugbear
nowadays."

"By making them respect me and by paying good wages. They should not
be expected to give their time and strength at starvation prices.
I do have trouble sometimes. In fact I think, first and last, I have
done everything but plow. But in the main I get along. The farm is
prospering, and a few years hence I mean to have it called a model,
not a mortgaged farm."

"It is all right, of course, my dear, if you like it," said her city
friend, with somewhat unwilling admiration, "but I should think you
would get dreadfully tanned and coarse."

"Do I look so?" asked the country girl, with a happy little challenging
laugh. "I was certainly never in better health."

And the visitor had to admit that there was no lack of womanly beauty
in the rich coloring of the young farmer's rounded cheeks, albeit a few
tiny freckles bridged the straight nose.

"But think how utterly you are lost to society! What a sacrifice for a
Milford!" lamented the rich man's wife, to whom life's hard lessons had
not come. "I can never forget the gorgeous entertainment at this old
house when we were first home from school. Such flowers! Such music!
Such a supper! And, oh, the lovely gowns! I declare, Maggie, you were a
beauty that night, and Libbie never looked prettier. It seems a crying
shame!"

"Not converted yet?" playfully asked the other, though the quick tears
sprang to her eyes at the sudden stab of memory.

"Remember, dear," she added gently, "we could not have gone out even
if we had not decided to give up all idle pleasures. But we are not
hermits, I assure you. Our old friends are most kind. Per