. WE CLOSE THE BOOKS FOR '96 199

XXXVI. OUR FRIENDS 202

XXXVII. THE HEADMAN'S JOB 210

XXXVIII. SPRING OF '97 217

XXXIX. THE YOUNG ORCHARD 225

XL. THE TIMOTHY HARVEST 230

XLI. STRIKE AT GORDON'S MINE 236

XLII. THE RIOT 250

XLIII. THE RESULT 260

XLIV. DEEP WATERS 268

XLV. DOGS AND HORSES 274

XLVI. THE SKIM-MILK TRUST 282

XLVII. NABOTH'S VINEYARD 285

XLVIII. MAIDS AND MALLARDS 294

XLIX. THE SUNKEN GARDEN 298

L. THE HEADMAN GENERALIZES 303

LI. THE GRAND-GIRLS 308

LII. THE THIRD RECKONING 313

LIII. THE MILK MACHINE 317

LIV. BACON AND EGGS 328

LV. THE OLD TIME FARM-HAND 337

LVI. THE SYNDICATE 342

LVII. THE DEATH OF SIR TOM 346

LVIII. BACTERIA 352

LIX. MATCH-MAKING 355

LX. "I TOLD YOU SO" 362

LXI. THE BELGIAN FARMER 367

LXII. HOME-COMING 375

LXIII. AN HUNDRED FOLD 378

LXIV. COMFORT ME WITH APPLES 383

LXV. THE END OF THE THIRD YEAR 388

LXVI. LOOKING BACKWARD 394

LXVII. LOOKING FORWARD 402

THE FAT OF THE LAND

CHAPTER I

MY EXCUSE

My sixtieth birthday is a thing of yesterday, and I have, therefore,
more than half descended the western slope. I have no quarrel with life
or with time, for both have been polite to me; and I wish to give an
account of the past seven years to prove the politeness of life, and to
show how time has made amends to me for the forced resignation of my
professional ambitions. For twenty-five years, up to 1895, I practised
medicine and surgery in a large city. I loved my profession beyond the
love of most men, and it loved me; at least, it gave me all that a
reasonable man could desire in the way of honors and emoluments. The
thought that I should ever drop out of this attractive, satisfying life,
never seriously occurred to me, though I was conscious of a strong and
persistent force that urged me toward the soil. By choice and by
training I was a physician, and I gloried in my work; but by instinct I
was, am, and always shall be, a farmer. All my life I have had visions
of farms with flocks and herds, but I did not expect to realize my
visions until I came on earth a second time.

I would never have given up my profession voluntarily; but when it gave
me up, I had to accept the dismissal, surrender my ambitions, and fall
back upon my primary instin