ry. Of
the turnips I could feel more certain, for doth not the poet say:--

"The 25th day of July,
Sow your turnips, wet or dry"?

As the 25th fell on Sunday, I tried to placate the agricultural poet by
sowing half on the 24th and the other half on the 26th, but it was no
use. Whether the turnip god was offended by the fractured rule and
refused his blessing, or whether the dry August and September prevented
full returns, is more than I can say. Certain it is that I had but a
half crop of turnips and a beggarly batch of beets to comfort me and the
hogs.

Some little consolation, however, was found in Polly's joy over a small
crop of currants which her yearling bushes produced. I also heard rumors
of a few cherries which turned their red cheeks to the sun for one happy
day, and then disappeared. Cock Robin's breast was red the next morning,
and on this circumstantial evidence Polly accused him. He pleaded "not
guilty," and strutted on the lawn with his thumbs in the armholes of his
waistcoat and his suspected breast as much in evidence as a pouter
pigeon's. A jury, mostly of blackbirds, found the charge "not proven,"
and the case was dismissed. I was convinced by the result of this trial
that the only safe way would be to provide enough cherries for the birds
and for the people too, and ordered fifty more trees for fall planting.
I found by experience, that if one would have bird neighbors (and who
would not?), he must provide liberally for their wants and also for
their luxuries. I have stolen a march as to the cherries by planting
scores of mulberry trees, both native and Russian. Birds love mulberries
even better than they do cherries, and we now eat our pies in peace. To
make amends for this ruse, I have established a number of drinking
fountains and free baths; all of which have helped to make us friends.

In August I sold, near the top of a low market, 156 young hogs. At $4.50
per hundred, the bunch netted me $1807. They did not weigh quite as much
as those sold the previous autumn, and I found two ways of accounting
for this. The first and most probable was that fall pigs do not grow so
fast as those farrowed in the spring. This is sufficient to account for
the fact that the herd average was twenty pounds lighter than that of
its predecessor. I could not, however, get over the notion that
Anderson's nervousness had in some way taken possession of the swine (we
have Holy Writ for a similar case), and th