efully. He never paid a
cent more for anything than he could help, and was noted for hard
bargaining. "I'll give ye sixteen dollars if you clean out the whole
field," he said at length.

Ellis looked at the pasture. He knew something about cleaning out
elderberry brush, and he also knew that sixteen dollars would be very
poor pay for it. Most of the elders were higher than a man's head,
with big roots, thicker than his wrist, running deep into the ground.

"It's worth more, Mr. Fillmore," he said.

"Not to me," responded Old Thomas drily. "I've plenty more land and
I'm an old fellow without any sons. I ain't going to pay out money for
the benefit of some stranger who'll come after me. You can take it or
leave it at sixteen dollars."

Ellis shrugged his shoulders. He had no prospect of anything else, and
sixteen dollars were better than nothing. "Very well, I'll take it,"
he said.

"Well, now, look here," said Old Thomas shrewdly, "I'll expect you to
do the work thoroughly, young man. Them roots ain't to be cut off,
remember; they'll have to be dug out. And I'll expect you to finish
the job if you undertake it too, and not drop it halfway through if
you get a chance for a better one."

"I'll finish with your elderberries before I leave them," promised
Ellis.

* * * * *

Ellis went to work the next day. His first move was to chop down all
the brush and cart it into heaps for burning. This took two days and
was comparatively easy work. The third day Ellis tackled the roots. By
the end of the forenoon he had discovered just what cleaning out an
elderberry pasture meant, but he set his teeth and resolutely
persevered. During the afternoon Timothy Robinson, whose farm adjoined
the Fillmore place, wandered by and halted with a look of astonishment
at the sight of Ellis, busily engaged in digging and tearing out huge,
tough, stubborn elder roots. The boy did not see his uncle, but worked
away with a vim and vigour that were not lost on the latter.

"He never got that muscle from Sam," reflected Timothy. "Sam would
have fainted at the mere thought of stumping elders. Perhaps I've been
mistaken in the boy. Well, well, we'll see if he holds out."

Ellis did hold out. The elderberries tried to hold out too, but they
were no match for the lad's perseverance. It was a hard piece of work,
however, and Ellis never forgot it. Week after week he toiled in the
hot summer sun, digging, cutting, a