ys said that if he could get
enough land he'd be rich."

"He probably had too much as it was, Bessie. The trouble with most
farmers is that they don't know how to use the land they have, instead
of that they haven't enough. They don't treat the soil right, and they
won't spend money for good farm machinery and for rich fertilizers. If
they did that, and studied farming, the way men study to be doctors or
lawyers, they'd be better off. How many acres did Paw Hoover have? Well,
it doesn't matter, but I'll bet that my father gets more out of one acre
on his farm than Paw Hoover does out of two on his. You see, the man
who's in charge of the farm went to college to study the business, and
he knows all sorts of things that make a farm pay better."

"Paw Hoover was talking about that once, saying he wished he could send
Jake to college to study farming. But Maw laughed at him, and Jake
couldn't have gone, anyhow. He was so stupid that he never even got
through school there in Hedgeville."

"I suppose he is stupid," said Eleanor. "But after all, Bessie, when a
boy doesn't get along well in school it doesn't always mean that it's
his fault. He may not be properly taught. Sometimes it's the school's
fault, and not the pupil's."

"Other people got along all right," said Bessie. She wasn't quite
prepared to say a good word for Jake Hoover yet. He had caused her too
much trouble in the past.

"Why," she went on, "I used to have to do his lessons for him all the
time. He just wouldn't study at home, Miss Eleanor, and in school he was
so big, and such a bully, that most of the teachers were afraid of him."

"That just shows they weren't good teachers, Bessie. No good teacher is
ever afraid of a bully. She has plenty of people to back her up if she
really needs help. I don't say Jake Hoover is any better than he ought
to be, but from all you tell me, part of his trouble may be because he
hasn't been properly handled. But let's forget him, anyhow. Look over
there. Do you see that white house on top of the hill?"

"Against the sun, so that it's sort of pink where the sun strikes it?"
said Bessie. "Yes, what a lovely place!"

"Well, that's where we're going," said Eleanor.

"But--but that doesn't look a bit like a farmhouse!" said Bessie,
surprised. "I thought--"

"You thought it would be more like the Hoover farm, didn't you?" laughed
Eleanor. "Well, of course that's only our house, and Dad built a nice
one, on the finest pi