arly than I have before. For myself, I
should love to spend the summer with Sally, and I'll do my best to bring
it about."

That was all he wanted, and he plunged into talk about the farm, what had
been done, what was being done, and what remained to do. It seemed that,
while much had been accomplished, a mountain of tasks remained. The place
had been running down so long that every inch of it required immediate
taking in hand.

"There's not much to expect the first year in the way of crops," he
explained. "We shall plough all we can in April, and sow it in May to
buckwheat."

"Buckwheat! What do you want of that?"

"Nothing--but to turn it under and give the ground a chance to enrich
itself. All the north meadow we shall let come to the haying--by the way,
that'll be a jolly time for you to be there. I believe Sally has great
plans for the haying. The old apple orchard we had carefully pruned in
February, and we're going to plough it--Sally's not pleased at that, she
says it will be prettier not ploughed; but the poor old roots need to be
saved from starving. We nearly came to blows over that, and of course I
was sorry to oppose her about anything that has to do with the beauty of
the place. But the quickest road to lasting improvement is the one we
must take, and I hope there'll be enough more blossoms on the trees in
the future to make up for the loss of the grass."

"You won't lose ground with Sally by opposing her, now and then. She'll
come round in the end to seeing you're right."

"I'll have plenty of chances to win favour by opposition with everybody.
Even Mr. Rudd has his ideas about what ought to be, because of what was
when he was a boy on the farm up in New Hampshire. Max wanted the new
fence posts of ash, though locust is much more lasting, and there's
plenty to spare in the timber lot. As for the neighbouring farmers,
they're already keenly alive to our first efforts, and some of them are
watching eagerly to see us make mistakes--but not all. There are several
who are progressive enough themselves to want to see us win out with
modern methods."

"With all your studying, I suppose you'll make some mistakes."

"Mistakes!--Dozens of them. But we won't make the same one twice. Jo, if
you could have heard those fellows talk whom I heard on my trip, the ones
who run the really successful farms on scientific methods, you wouldn't
wonder at my interest."

He was still talking away when he turned the car